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THE NATIONS OF TO-DAY 
A New History of the World 
Epirep By JOHN BUCHAN 


INDIA 


THE NATIONS 
OF TO-DAY 


A New History of the World 
EDITED BY 
JOHN BUCHAN 

FIRST LIST OF VOLUMES 

GREAT BRITAIN (7°... 

FRANCE 

JAPAN 

ITALY 

INDIA 

BELGIUM AND LUXEM- 
BOURG 

BRITISH AMERICA 

YUGOSLAVIA 

THE BALTIC AND CAU- 
CASIAN STATES 

IRELAND 

BULGARIA AND _ RO- 
MANIA 


Other Volumes in Preparation 


-Erasnotarsk 95 100 


ee INDIA 


ra N y = WD } Wile T ? 
F = vers F j Y .) 4 : a om apts 2; ed ! ‘4 \\ se 
eae ne eS eae “a 


Natural Scale 118,100,000 


oO 50 100 200 00 . 
SSS hil — Miles 


wt Reatbw ays Uses crrsset*sice 


WF 


Mi fon it Mp plies! 
: aS ME 
f 


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hy gia ater BN Allene ity / 
ay ponte bly "4 \ Bilis 
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| | 4 
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. nw ogy a el x | N e ob ar g om . 
Eight Degree Channel | C.Comorin” Wanaar ff CEYLON | | NJ = &eNankauri 
f “ a. ‘atticaloa | | Sombrery Chon. \ 
Negomboy = | 1 lit Nicobar 
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Colombe : - vm : 
120 130 Ts5 


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Nie PHILIPPINE oe 
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| ate BAST INDIA Is 
| Adu Atoll British Territory coloured red; Protected states yellow: : Tay v 
| : Dutch Possessions brown; (Mal vas a 
fa Rettich» (P)= Por xe; (Fri=French; (Dw) -~Dutclv. 
| Bri- British; (P)= Portuguese ; (r)=French,; (Dw) -Dutalv. Natural Scale 1:45,000,000_ 
j or —— 8° Poul. Se ate ©) -— eee ——— eee Miles ! 
; 75 L i E. of i 0 5 = 
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alt ; W.& AK. Johnston Jiesited Edinburgh & Tandon esses ALIAS 


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000‘O0T'SEL TBS Te-maRN 


[THE spelling of place-names in this volume follows broadly 
that of the Imperial Gazetteer and 1/1,000,000 Survey of India. 
A few exceptions, such as Haidarabad, Nipal, and Karnatik, 


will be noted.—ED. ] 


xV 


NOTE 


Tue Historical portion of this volume is the work of Sir Verney 
Lovett, K.C.S.1., M.A., Reader in Indian history at Oxford 
University, late of the Indian Civil Service. The Economics 
have been written by Mr. H. R. C. Hailey, 1.C.8S., C.LE., 
C.B.E., mainly from a valuable statistical paper compiled for 
this book by the late Sir William Meyer, G.C.LE., K.C.S.I., 
High Commissioner for India in London and ex-Member of 
Council and Financial Secretary in India. Full acknowledg- 
ment is also due to Dr. J. Coggin Brown, O.B.E., F.G.S., 
who compiled the material dealing with the minerals of the 
country. 

The whole volume has been prepared under the care of 
Major-General Lord Edward Gleichen. 


INDIA 


THE NATIONS OF TO-DAY 
A New History of the World 
Epirep By JOHN BUCHAN 


BOSTON AND NEW |YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 


Made and Printed in Great Britain. 
Hazell, Watson ¢ Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
1923 


CONTENTS 


GENERAL INTRODUCTION : : ; ; : ; Vv 
NOTES : . ‘ 4 ° : ; : XV, XVI 
A—HISTORY 

INTRODUCTORY 
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS —ETHNIC AND POLITICAL DIVISIONS 3 


PART I—BEFORE PLASSEY 


I. THE HINDU PERIOD : ; ; P . 10 


II. THE MUHAMMADAN,s PERIOD TO THE DEATH OF 


AKBAR ; : ; ; : : ‘ 18 

III. THE MOGHAL EMPIRE FROM 1605 To 1707 . : 27 
IV. THE MOGHAL EMPIRE AND THE PEOPLE . : 34 
V. EUROPEAN MARITIME ENTERPRISE . , ; 41 
VI. THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MOGHAL EMPIRE : 50 
VII. THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH : : ; 58 
VIII. PLASSEY : : : ‘ : : ; 66 


PART TI—FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


IX. THE REGULATING ACT - ; ‘ d : 75 
X. THE FIRST GOVERNOR-GENERAL ; F ; 83 
XI. NON-INTERVENTION : : ; : . 93 
XII. EXPANSION . ; ; , ; : LL 
XIII. THE DAWN OF MODERN PROBLEMS . : och 
XIV. DALHOUSIE . ; : ; , ; « 120 
XV. THE MUTINY AND AFTER. : , ; pA .f6' 


IN—D XVil 


XViil 


CONTENTS 


PART III—FROM 1861 TO 1914 


avi. 
XVII. 
XVIII. 
XIX. 


RECONSTRUCTION 
THE BEGINNING OF POLITICS . 


THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CURZON 


THE DECADE BEFORE THE WAR 


PART IV—FROM 1914 


xX, 
XXII. 
XXII, 
XXIII. 
XXIV. 
XXV. 


XXXVI. 


1914-15 

THE DECLARATION OF 1917 
THE REFORMS PROPOSALS 
INDIA’S WAR EFFORT 
TRAGEDY 

THE END OF THE OLD ORDER. 


THE NEW ORDER 


CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES 


IV. MINES AND MINERALS 
V. RAILWAYS 
VI. FINANCE 
VII. DEBT, CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE 
C—MISCELLANEOUS 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
INDEX 


B—ECONOMICS 
AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION 
FORESTS AND IRRIGATION 


INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE 


PAGE 


137 
146 
155 
161 


Ly | 
179 
187 
195 
202 
211 
221 


233 


239 
24:7 
252 
260 
265 
268 
276 


287 
293 


INDIA OF TO-DAY 
INDIA IN 1605 

INDIA IN 1785 AND 1804 
INDIA IN 1857 


MAP SHOWING VEGETATION 


MAPS 


xix 


Frontispiece 


Opp. p. 40 
106 


A—HISTORY 


INTRODUCTORY 


PHYSICAL CONDITIONS—ETHNIC AND POLITICAL 
DIVISIONS 


TuE India known to Herodotus was the Punjab, the country 
of the river Indus!; the easternmost region of the inhabited 
world, the twentieth satrapy of the Persian empire. Later 
ancient writers thought of India as a wider area of which the 
Punjab formed part. To Europeans of the Middle Ages India, 
or the Indies, signified a far-away eastern land, renowned for 
the spices and costly commodities which it supplied. After- 
wards this land became the East Indies, as other Indies had 
been discovered in the far West, and the name India was 
applied to the countries between the Persian Gulf and the 
Malay Peninsula. In our own day India denotes the sub- 
continent of irregularly triangular shape which lies between 
Cape Comorin and the Himalayas, stretching into the mainland 
of Asia as far as Baluchistan on the west and Burma on the 
east. Burma is part of the British-Indian Empire; but, cut 
off from India by a series of forest-clad ranges, it has been 
occupied by Mongolian tribes who have united to form the 
nation known as Burmese. 

The physical aspects of India have often been described. 
It is sufficient here to indicate those particular features which 
from remote ages have largely shaped her history. Triangular 
in shape, on two sides she is bounded by an enormous sea-board 
of about 3,400 miles. On the third she is fenced in by moun- 
tain ranges, of which the Himalayas are the central and most 
impregnable. As these ranges turn westward and southward 
toward the Arabian Sea, they are here and there traversed by 
passes which have frequently given access to invading armies 
but have not encouraged the advance of tribes or families 
encumbered by women and children. Raids upon a large 
scale have been easily practicable; but racial invasions have 
slowed down; and this circumstance, combined with the 
decimation of the women and children of conquering peoples, 


1 The Sanskrit word “sindhu”’ means a river and particularly the Indus. 
3 


A INTRODUCTORY 


has produced upon India certain marked results. There has 
never been extermination of the previous inhabitants by any 
invader. On the contrary, successive waves of invaders have 
settled themselves upon the top of conquered populations. 
From these populations the new-comers have taken wives, 
to replace the women lost on the journey from the base. 
Thus the piecemeal nature of successive conquests and the 
enforced intercourse between conquerors and conquered have 
produced a remarkable continuity of Indian civilisation. 
Despite periodic invasions of the country by peoples of widely 
divergent races, religions and customs, many affluent streams 
have been absorbed into two particular systems. 

The prevailing climate of the plains of Upper India, named 
Hindostan by the Persians and Aryavarta (Aryan territory) by 
the Brahmans, has contributed to mould Indian history. The 
blazing sun of the hot-weather months, their lurid noon-day 
air laden with grains of dust swept up by burning winds 
from parched plains, the steamy heat of the monsoon season, 
its torrential downpours, have conduced to supineness and 
have borne heavily on settlers of Central Asian ancestry. 
One race of these after another has established itself in a 
dominant position in the Gangetic plain, only to lose gradually 
the redundant strength and martial fibre to which its original 
success was due, to be merged by degrees in a less vigorous 
population, and to be conquered in its turn by a fresh army 
of invaders. Only as long as the victors could stiffen their 
ranks by continual recruitment from the countries of their 
origin were they able to maintain their supremacy as a 
separate and a ruling race. To secure this source of supply 
necessitated the holding of territory on each side of the 
mountain barrier, that is, the simultaneous possession of the 
countries now called Afghanistan and the Punjab. Several 
dynasties attempted this, but before long they found them- 
selves unable to retain their hold on regions so severely 
separated by nature. They paid the penalty exacted by a 
semi-tropical climate, losing their original vigour, and becom- 
ing absorbed in the mass of their subjects or conquered by 
fresh invaders. No conquerors from Central Asia, subjected 
for generations to depressing climatic influences, exposed to 
continual risk of overthrow from the countries of their origin, 
were able to set up long-enduring kingdoms. They estab- 
lished the Gangetic valley as the main seat of empire, the 
centre of political and cultural movements which spread 
throughout the sub-continent. But India south of the Nar- 


ETHNIC AND POLITICAL DIVISIONS 5 


bada River and Vindhya Range remained largely a country 
apart, although sometimes its kingdoms were reduced to in- 
effective subjugation. While, however, a northern empire was 
occupied in such adventures, its own dominions were threat- 
ened by domestic revolt and incursions of foreign enemies 
whose martial vigour was still unsapped. By its culture the 
North established a lasting dominion over the South, but never 
by force of arms. 

We have seen that conditions on the land frontiers of India 
have precluded invasion on a large scale. Nor in earlier ages 
was her coast-line much more inviting. ‘‘ The succession of 
militant traders who landed on the narrow strip of fertile but 
malarious country which fringes Western India, found them- 
selves cut off from the interior by the forest-clad barrier of the 
western Ghats, while on the eastern side of the peninsula, the 
low coast, harbourless from Cape Comorin to Balasore, is 
guarded by dangerous shallows backed by a line of pitiless 
suri.’ + 

Isolated by land and sea, India is divided by geographical 
conditions into three main regions: (a) the glorious mountains 
of the Himalaya or abode of snow, (b) the great northern plains 
which form the basin of the Indus, the Ganges and their tribu- 
taries, (c) the hills and the wolds of the Deccan, separated 
from the north by a barrier of which the chief features are 
the Narbada River and the Vindhya Range, and dividing the 
Gangetic valley from the Tamil States to the south of the 
peninsula. 

Each of these regions has its ethnic character. Along the 
line of the lower ranges of the Himalayas live peoples of mixed 
Mongolian descent. The plains of the north have been the 
highway of Aryan, Afghan and Turkish invasion. The features 
of many of its people testify to Aryan descent. The Deccan 
(South) and the Peninsula have been the abiding-place of 
the Dravidians, who are among the oldest of Indian races. 
Baluchistan with its blend of Arab, Afghan, Scythian or Turki 
types, and Burma with its blend of Mongolian types, guard 
the south-west and eastern land frontiers of the Empire. 

Risley divides the peoples of all these regions into seven main 
physical types. 

(a) The Turko-Iranian, formed by a fusion of Turki and 
Persian elements in which the former predominate, represented 
by the Baluchis and Afghans of the Baluchistan Agency and 
the North-west Frontier Province. 

1 Risley, People of India. 


6 | INTRODUCTORY 


(b) Indo-Aryan, occupying the Punjab Rajputana and 
Kashmir, having as its characteristic members the Rajputs, 
Khatris and Jats (this type most closely resembles that ascribed 
to the original Aryan invaders). 

(c) Scytho-Dravidian, comprising the Maratha Brahmans, 
the Kumbis and the Coorgs, probably formed by a mixture of 
Scytho and Dravidian types. 

(d) Aryo-Dravidian, found in the United Provinces of Agra 
and Oudh, in parts of Rajputana, in Bihar, probably the result 
of the intermixture in varying proportions of the Indo-Aryan 
and Dravidian types, the former element predominating in the 
higher types. 

(e) Mongol-Dravidian, found in Bengal and Orissa, a blend 
of the Dravidian and Mongoloid elements with a strain of 
Indo-Aryan blood in the higher groups. 

(f) Mongoloid, found in the Himalayas, Nipal, Assam and 
Burma. 

(g) Dravidian, extending from Ceylon to the Ganges Valley, 
possibly the original type of the population of India, now 
modified to a varying degree by the admixture of Aryan, 
Scythian and Mongoloid elements. 

The contrasts between these various types are perceptible 
to any observer. But, as Risley points out, the areas mainly 
occupied by each melt into each other insensibly, ‘‘ and al- 
though at the close of a day’s journey from one ethnic tract to 
another, an observer whose attention had been directed to the 
subject would realise clearly enough that the physical charac- 
teristics of the people had undergone an appreciable change, 
he would certainly be unable to say at what particular stage 
in his progress the transformation had taken place.” ! 

Languages are many, and so are social divisions, tribes or 
castes ; but castes will be dealt with further on. The linguis- 
tic survey of India recognises 147 distinct languages grouped 
under 9 differentiated families. The peoples of Northern and 
Central India and of the Western Deccan speak various lan- 
guages which have sprung from vernaculars akin to Sanskrit, 
the literary language of the Brahmans. The most notable of 
these tongues are Hindi, Bengali and Marathi. Urdu or Hin- 
dustani, a blend of Hindi and Persian, has been a lingua franca 
since the earlier days of Muslim ascendency, although in the 
south and far east it is still comparatively little understood. 
Its script is the Persian, which differs very widely from the 
Nagari or Sanskritic character and others akin thereto. In 

1 Risley, People of India, p. 33. 


ETHNIC AND POLITICAL DIVISIONS ii 


the south Dravidian languages are spoken, of which Tamil is 
the oldest, richest and most highly organised. 

Divided as India has always been by many and various 
circumstances, it was only when her destinies were controlled 
by a race independent of land-communications, and able, with 
small let or hindrance, to retain its primitive energy, that, 
obtaining a new security, she was able to progress towards 
a unity and national consciousness which in earlier times had 
been constantly thwarted by the menace or reality of devas- 
tating invasion. The fruits of that progress were gathered in 
those memorable years 1914-18. Never before in all the ages 
had the peoples of India stood together in one consolidated, 
prolonged effort. Never was clearer testimony borne to the 
character of a system of government. That system has now 
given place to another which is designed to prepare the way 
for further and wider change. In these pages the endeavour 
will be made to present clearly the outstanding events in the 
latest stage of a long, eventful history. But in order to make 
the incidents of this stage clearly understood, the story of 
earlier stages, and more particularly of those which are nearest 
to our own time, will be traced as fully as space permits. 
Recent constitutional changes have laid upon the Services of 
the Crown in India a task honourable indeed, but of a difficulty 
which we can appreciate only when we look back into the past. 
‘And before we endeavour to throw historical light on its com- 
plexities, we must sketch the political outlines of the Indian 
Empire as it stands to-day, noticing in particular a climatic 
circumstance which regulates economic conditions in every 
province and state. 

The Indian Empire consists of nine major provinces con- 
taining a population of 243,000,000 and six minor administra- 
tions peopled by about 4,000,000. It includes Native States 
under British suzerainty, which contain another 72,000,000. 

The major provinces and their populations are Madras, 
peopled by 42,300,0001; Bengal, by 46,700,000; Bihar and 
Orissa, by 34,000,000 ; the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, 
by 45,600,000; Bombay, by 19,300,000 (including about 
100,000 Parsees or Persians domiciled in India for centuries, 
pre-eminent in industrial and commercial enterprise, Zoroas- 
trians by religion); Assam, by 7,600,000; the Punjab, by 
20,700,000; the Central Provinces and Berar, peopled by 
18,800,000 ; Burma, peopled by 13,200,000. 

The minor provinces are the North-west Frontier Province, 

1 Census of 1921. 


8 INTRODUCTORY 


peopled by 2,250,000; British Baluchistan, peopled by 422,000 
Ajmir-Merwara, peopled by 496,000; Coorg, peopled by 
164,000 ; Andaman and Nicobar Islands, peopled by 27,000 ; 
Delhi, peopled by 486,000. (It was constituted an ‘‘ adminis- 
trative enclave’? under a Chief Commissioner in 1912 when 
the Imperial capital was transferred from Calcutta.) All the 
minor provinces are administered by Chief Commissioners on 
behalf of the Central Government. 

The Native States, with a population of 72,000,000, number 
about 700, of which 60 or 70 are of major importance; but 
many, especially in the Bombay Presidency, are ruled by petty 
chiefs and feudatories. All are on a standing different from 
that of the independent neighbouring States of Tibet, Nipal, 
Bhutan and Afghanistan, with which the Government of India 
has treaty relationships. The foreign affairs of the Native 
States, their dealings with each other, are managed by and 
under the direction of the Government of India. Subject in 
every case to the reservation of jurisdiction over British sub- 
jects and cantonment towns occupied by British troops, sub- 
ject also to conditions regarding the strength of a State’s armed 
forces, the ruling Chiefs divide their internal sovereignty with 
the paramount power “in proportions which differ greatly 
according to the history and importance of the several States 
and which are regulated by treaties or less formal engagements, 
partly by ‘Sanads’ or charters and partly by usage.” 1 The 
principal Native States are: 

Haidarabad,? with a population of 12,454,000, ruled by the 
Nizam, a prince of Turkoman descent belonging to a dynasty 
founded in 1724 by a Viceroy of the Moghal Empire. 

Maisur, peopled by 5,977,000, ruled by a Maharaja, a prince 
of an ancient Hindu line dispossessed for a time by a success- 
ful Muslim soldier and his son, but reinstated by the British. 

Travancore, with a population of 4,006,000, under another 
Hindu prince claiming descent from an ancient Tamil House. 

Kashmir and Jammu, with a population of 3,322,000, ceded 
to the British after the first Sikh War and made over by them 
to a Rajput, appointed Chief of Jammu by Ranjit Singh. 

Baroda (population 2,122,000), Gwalior (population 3,176,000), 
Indore (population 1,148,000)—all three ruled by Maratha 
princes descended from successful soldiers who carved out 
dominions for themselves in the confusion of the eighteenth 
century. 


1 Ilbert, Government of India, p. 165. 
2 Conventionally, Hyderabad. 


ETHNIC AND POLITICAL DIVISIONS 9 


Udaipur (population 1,393,000), Jaipur (population 2,829,000) 
—Rajput States ruled by princes of ancient lineage. 

Bhopal (population 691,000), founded as an independent 
kingdom by an Afghan officer of the Emperor Aurangzeb and 
now ruled by the Begam, the only female ruler in India. 

It should be added that small Indian territories are still 
held by the French and the Portuguese : 

Pondicherry, the principal French settlement was _ first 
founded in 1674. 

Goa, the capital of a small Portuguese province, was con- 
quered by Albuquerque in 1510. 

The lines on which British provinces and Native States are 
divided have been marked out by history, and modified here 
and there by administrative arrangements. 

Of the 319,000,000 of India only 10-2 per cent. dwell in 
towns. India has always been, is now, and will remain, pre- 
dominantly an agricultural country. Her greatest natural 
asset is her soil. Her greatest blessing is a good monsoon. 
The concentration of almost all the annual rainfall in four 
consecutive months makes these months of supreme importance. 
If the monsoon fails over large areas, as it not infrequently 
does fail, a peasant population, which in spite of frequent 
inroads of epidemics breeds to the very margin of subsistence, 
is liable to suffer severely ; and for this reason the history of 
India has been marked by famines which have only ceased to 
be desolating since irrigation has been widely extended by canals; 
since railways and metalled roads have enormously improved 
communications, and since a careful system of famine preven- 
tion and relief has been elaborated by the British Government. 

As Rabindranath Tagore has said, ‘‘ India is many countries 
packed into one geographical receptacle.’ But divided, as 
Indians are by varieties of race and language, they are all 
marked off from other Asiatics by distinct characteristics. 
How far do they differ from ourselves? To quote an acute 
observer,! ‘‘ Great as are the differences between us and our 
Indian fellow-citizens, the points of resemblance are even more 
remarkable. . . . There is certainly no other non-European 
race in the world that could so rapidly and so perfectly acquire 
our;language and adapt themselves to our manners; nor is 
there any race in whom we are less conscious of an estranging 
foreignness. The fact is, no doubt, that India is leavened 
with Aryanism ; and that even this remote cousinship tells in 
the end.” 


1 Mr. William Archer. 


PART I—BEFORE PLASSEY 


I 
THE HINDU PERIOD 


THE genesis of the religious and social system which is known 
as Hinduism and has for so many ages affected the lives and 
destinies of countless millions is to be found in the institutions 
of the Aryans, who entered India between 2,000 and 1,300 
years before the Christian era, and were apparently a cheerful 
and intelligent people worshipping personified natural powers 
with the aid of their priests and by means of prayer and sacri- 
fice, looking towards an immortality spent in heaven with the 
gods and glorified ancestors. Their political unit was the 
household, which often included many individuals, presided 
over by the eldest male. Their households were grouped into 
tribes headed by Rajas (chiefs or kings). As they made their 
way through the Punjab into the Gangetic plain and on beyond, 
conquering and to some extent displacing the darker Dra- 
vidians,? their religious and political institutions underwent 
considerable change. Their cheerful nature-worship became 
intermingled with darker elements derived from Dravidian 
sources. Their worship became more elaborate, more ritualistic 
and more mystical. Nature-worship was maintained by 
anthropomorphism ; and it seems possible that leaders among 
men obtained divine honours after death. The due performance 
of worship was held to depend on complicated ceremonies 
carried out by experts; and simultaneously the original sim- 
plicity of the political structure developed into a system of 
small territorial kingdoms consisting of groups of settlements, 
each settlement made up of village-units. The whole organisa- 
tion gradually assumed a shape adapted to peace rather than 
to war. The Rajas began to lose some of the prestige which 
the function of war-leader had secured for them in days of 
continual strife, and except when hostilities were actually in 
progress found their importance in the community, though 


1 Named after Dravida, the ancient name of the Tamil country in Southern 
India, 


10 


THE HINDU PERIOD 11 


still dominant, somewhat curtailed by the position of the 
intellectual and priestly orders. 

These tendencies can be traced still further in the picture 
presented by the two great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and 
the Mahabharata which, although in their present form prob- 
ably not older than the Christian era, contain earlier tradition. 
illustrative of changes which came over the Aryan-speaking 
peoples in the course of the centuries immediately succeeding 
their settlement in India. | Between the period of the Vedas 
(the early hymns of these peoples) and the period with which 
the Epics are generally concerned, the caste system had de- 
veloped. Caste, derived from the Latin castus (pure), may be 
defined as an elaborately regulated social exclusiveness with 
reference to diet and marriage. It has resulted in the division 
of its millions of followers into thousands of hereditary groups, 
each of which is closely knit by rules of ceremonial purity, 
and by these rules effectively separated from other groups. 

The original basis of caste was probably a sense of distinc- 
tion of race indicated by differences of colour. The poets of 
the Rig Veda recognised four classes of men: the Brahmans 
or priests and intellectuals, the Kshatriyas or warriors, the 
Vaisyas or traders and agriculturists, the Sudras or servile 
residuum. The difference between the first three classes, which 
represented the Aryan conquerors, and the fourth class, which 
consisted of a portion of the earlier inhabitants of India, was 
one of colour. The remaining peoples of the country were 
termed barbarians by the Brahmans, who, presiding over 
other classes, treating families bound together by offerings to 
common ancestors as their congregations or religious units, 
and anxious to consolidate their own authority, elaborated 
rules for the preservation of ceremonial purity. From the 
earliest times they cultivated learning, which they regarded 
as their exclusive property. They developed their spiritual 
ideals in voluminous literary works and, splitting into various 
fraternities, were imitated by other classes. 

Social and occupational compartments became numerous in 
every class. Each compartment was filled exclusively by a 
certain community or caste. The dharma or duties of each 
member of a caste consisted of the observance of particular 
caste regulations and of such general obligations as reverence 
for Brahmans and for the sacred cow. Violation of dharma 
involved a costly expiation ceremony or expulsion from caste 
and social ruin. As tribes outside the caste-pale, whether 
Dravidian or descended from the south-Mongolian nomads who 


12 BEFORE PLASSEY 


had entered India from the east, gradually adopted Brahmanic 
teaching, they became Hindus, members of the community 
which dwelt beside the great river, and accepting Brahmanic 
scriptures and gods, invited Brahmans to preside at all domestic 
events and ceremonies. The Brahmanic religion was elastic. 
All converts could form new castes and call themselves Hindus 
if they would submit to Brahman guidance. Some indeed 
might even be reckoned as Kshatriyas. Aborigines, after 
admission, might, if they chose, return to their original deities, 
provided only that they continued to accept the authority and 
divine right of Brahmans. 

; It has been truly said that the caste system, with its rigid 
seale of social rank, is in remarkable accord with the doctrine 
of Karma, or ‘‘ action,” which enjoins on every Hindu the 
obligation of doing his duty in that station in which he has 
been born. Hinduism teaches that every soul is an emanation 
of an impersonal supreme Spirit, a desireless, actionless intelli- 
gence which is always and everywhere present behind all the 
gods and behind the flux and change of the universe. Sparks 
from this divine central spirit enter one body after another. 
Kach spark or soul may be in one life a god, in another a man, 
in another an animal. No soul is released from repeated re- 
birth until, after accumulating sufficient merit in many lives, 
it returns to and is absorbed in the Divine source of its origin. 
At each re-birth its body or status is determined by its actions 
in previous existences. Intervals between deaths and births 
are generally believed to be spent in a temporary heaven or 
hell, according to deserts. It follows from the creed of Karma 
that Brahmans and Kshatriyas have won their high position 
by accumulated merit. Sudras and outcasts deserve their lot. 
It is useless to educate them. Their Karma must take its 
course. Their very touch defiles a Brahman. 

Caste is the foundation and essence of Hinduism. It has 
been a great stabilising force, and has preserved, as in a 
mould, the art, the traditions and the spiritual ideals of ancient 
Brahmanism. But it has sternly repressed individual liberty 
and has obstructed intercourse with foreign cultures. It has 
condemned large sections of the peoples of India to scorn and 
degradation almost beyond the hope of redemption; it has 
exposed social reform and industrial development to formid- 
able obstacles. Caste indeed may be described as the anti- 
thesis of Western individualism, but it has preserved intact 
against all comers the spirit and teaching of Hinduism through 
long ages of conflict and confusion. 


THE HINDU PERIOD 13 


The compilations termed the Mahabharata (story of the 
great war of early India between nations and tribes arrayed 
on two sides) and the Ramayana (adventures of Rama) include 
elements of different periods. Some go back to the Vedic 
age; but in the sixth book of the Mahabharata appears the 
famous Bhagavad Gita (Lord’s song), a philosophical poem of 
a much later date; and both compilations have undergone 
much re-editing at the hands of poets, professional reciters and 
Brahmans generally. The final recension probably took place 
about A.D. 200. The two epics contain some substantially 
identical verses. The tales told therein have inspired and 
inspire to-day Hindu thought and Hindu folklore. They show 
the caste system established in force. They insist strongly on 
the necessity of paying reverence to Brahmans. They exhibit 
Northern India split up into kingdoms ruled by monarchs 
among whom war and the chase were objects of high endeavour, 
whose customs and court-life present considerable resemblance 
to those of old-fashioned Hindu princes in our own day. . 

The Raja, or King, of the Mahabharata is assisted by coun- 
sellors, but his decisions are his own. He is the commander- 
in-chief and supreme civil ruler. The man who even thinks 
of doing him harm meets with grief here and Hell hereafter.* 
The Raja is entitled to a sixth share of the gross revenue of 
the country. He must treat all classes of his subjects justly. 
Above all he must be a man who can govern with a complete 
and strict reliance on the ‘‘ science of chastisement,’’ who can 
protect his subjects from ‘‘ malice domestic and foreign levy.” 
If he fails to do this he is like a leaky boat on a sea. He takes 
upon himself a quarter of the sins of his kingdom.? In the 
last resort he absolves his subjects from their allegiance, which 
they may transfer to a more capable ruler. ‘‘If a powerful 
king approaches kingdoms torn by anarchy, from desire of 
annexing them to his dominions, the people should go forward 
and receive the invader with respect.’’ A king should be heed- 
ful of his subjects as also of his foes. ‘‘ If he becomes heedless, 
they fall on him like vultures upon carrion.”’ § 

When we remember that, taken in conjunction with. other 
compilations (the Puranas), adapted and translated into ver- 
nacular, these epics have for ages proved a great engine of 
mass-education and have largely contributed to the fact that 
Hindu civilisation and thought have remained fundamentally 
intact from those days to these, we can see how the ancient 


1 Santi Parvan, p. 221. 2 Drona Parvan, p. 625. 
3 Santi Parvan, p. 289. 


14 BEFORE PLASSEY 


Hindu conception of the duties and liabilities of a ruler has in- 
fluenced the course of Indian history. The ruler who, if bold and 
despotic, was strong and ready to protect received obedience. 

The hero of the Ramayana is a god-man whose fame and 
influence have penetrated India. He and his wife Sita are 
held up as the ideals of noble manhood and perfect wifehood. 
The story of their adventures, told in many Indian tongues, 
has deeply moved generations of peoples impressed by nothing 
so much as by remarkable human personality. There are 
evidences in the Mahabharata of the fact that the Aryans had 
been brought into contact with Mongoloid as well as Dravidian 
races, and that the Hindu social structure was sufficiently 
elastic to enable Mongoloid princes to be regarded as Kshat- 
riyas who did not observe ordinary caste rules. Both Maha- 
vira, the founder of Jainism, and Gautama or Sakya Muni, the 
ereat Buddha (or enlightened one), were aristocrats of this 
description who renounced worldly vanities for absorption in 
religious meditation. They taught in Bihar and in the eastern 
portion of the present United Provinces. 

The religions which these two reformers preached started 
merely as varieties of Hinduism. Neither rejected caste. 
Jainism, however, particularly insisted on the sanctity of life, 
teaching that not only men and animals but plants, air, wind 
and fire possess various degrees of consciousness. It still re- 
mains the creed of a sect. Buddhism, after the death of its 
founder, divorced itself from Hinduism, and became one of the 
ereat faiths of mankind. Gautama, after long contemplation 
of human ills, preached that liberation from the weary round 
of re-birth could never be attained through magical ceremony 
or priestly ritual, but only by right living and right thinking. 
For the Supreme Soul into whom the Hindu hopes to be ab- 
sorbed eventually, he substituted Nirvana or eternal nothing- 
ness. After his death, which is believed to have occurred 
about 480 B.c., his followers proclaimed his divinity. Their 
faith was about 260 B.c. adopted by the great Hindu Emperor 
Asoka, who devoted himself earnestly to its propagation, 
sending Buddhist missionaries far and wide to foreign coun- 
tries. To him it is mainly due that, although eventually 
Buddhism was completely vanquished by Brahmanism in the 
country of its origin, it spread over Ceylon, Tibet, China, Siam 
and Burma, penetrating even to Japan. Before its virtual 
extinction in India it checked Brahman sacerdotalism, and, 
together with Jainism, impressed on Hindus ‘“‘ ahimsa,’’ the 
avoidance of injury to every form of animal life. 


THE HINDU PERIOD 15 


A great event of the earlier Hindu period was the invasion 
of the Punjab by Alexander the Great. The Indus was then 
considered the frontier of the Persian Empire. Alexander 
found a university of Vedic learning at the city of Taxila, which 
occupied a site, now deserted, between Rawalpindi and Attock.} 
Advancing farther, he fought a great battle on the banks of 
the Jhelum against one Porus, whom he defeated and subdued. 
He pressed on farther, but was forced to retreat by a mutiny 
in his army, and sailing down the Indus to the neighbourhood 
of Karachi, left India in October 323 B.c. He died two years 
later. His retirement was speedily followed by the expulsion 
of Greek garrisons from the basin of the Indus by Chandragupta 
Maurya, sovereign of Magadha (South Bihar), who defeated 
Seleukus Nikator, one of the best generals of the great Mace- 
donian, wresting from him territories corresponding to the 
modern Afghanistan and Baluchistan. 

Chandragupta, before his death, was master of an empire 
stretching over these countries and Northern India. He was 
-assisted by an able Brahman minister named Kautilya, and 
ruled despotically, by means of a highly-organised system of 
government, from Pataliputra, the modern Patna. His court 
was largely affected by Persian influences. His fame has been 
overshadowed by that of his great grandson Asoka, one of the 
chief evangelisers of the world, in whose days the Mauryan 
Empire extended from the north-west frontier to the northern 
districts of Maisur. But Asoka himself waged one war only, 
for the annexation of the Kingdom of Kalinga on the Bay of 
Bengal. The spectacle of the resultant devastation and misery 
operated so powerfully on his mind that he turned from Brah- 
manism and became an ardent Buddhist. From 261 B.c. to 
the year of his death he devoted himself to the propagation 
of his new faith, sending missionaries to far countries, and 
causing edicts to be graven on rocks and pillars in order to 
inculeate humanity and loving-kindness. Into the merciless 
despotism of his predecessors he infused a new spirit, turning 
their administrative and military machine into an instrument 
adapted to secure the welfare of his people. When he died, in 
232 B.c., Buddhism had spread abroad west and east to far 
countries. But after his death his empire speedily dissolved, 
and was succeeded by chaos and invasions from Central Asia, 
from Bactria, Parthia, Kabul, from the north of the Jaxartes. 

For a considerable period after the break-up of Alexander’s 


1 Extensive excavations on this site are proceeding and have yielded results 
of great archeological interest. 


16 BEFORE PLASSEY 


empire, Hellenistic States existed on the north-west frontier 
of India. With these the Mauryan Empire maintained friendly 
intercourse. Mauryan sculpture shows signs of Hellenic and 
of Persian influence. About 175 8B.c., when the Mauryan 
dynasty had fallen, a Greek King of Kabul and the Punjab, 
apparently Menander, invaded the Gangetic plain and threat- 
ened Pataliputra, but was eventually repelled. In the first 
and second centuries A.D. there was considerable trade between 
India and the Roman Empire, the frontier of which was, in 
A.D. 116, pushed by Trajan as far as the Persian Gulf. Com- 
merce was both overland and sea-borne from Egypt and 
Arabia to ports on the Malabar coast. Yet neither Greece nor 
Rome left any substantial impress upon India. 

In the early years of the fourth century a.p. emerged another 
indigenous attempt at empire building, which for a time offered 
some prospect of a unified India, only to dissolve into chaos 
under the hammer-blows of northern invaders. The empire 
of the Guptas, governed from Pataliputra like that of the 
Mauryans, is reported by Fa Hien, a Chinese traveller, who 
wandered about India between 401 and 410, to have been 
peaceable, prosperous and gently governed. The caste system 
was rigorous ; and outcastes were compelled to live apart from 
centres of population. But the people, as a whole, were happy 
and were governed in a kindly fashion which differed widely 
from earlier Mauryan methods. The later Gupta period was 
cotemporaneous with a remarkable literary and artistic renais- 
sance, some achievements of which still survive. But all the 
great buildings with which the Gupta Emperors embellished 
Pataliputra have succumbed to consuming time or the icono- 
clastic zeal of Muslim conquerors. 

The Gupta period was succeeded by invasion and chaos. 
The peoples who inhabited or occupied ancient Iran and Turke- 
stan were largely impelled to migrate to India by the aridity 
of their own lands, lands in which cultivated districts are rare 
and far apart.1 At this period hordes of Hunas (or Huns) 
occupied Kabul and poured down the passes of the North- 
west Frontier into the Gangetic plain. Their kingdom, how- 
ever, endured but a short space as they were smitten on the 
Oxus by the Turks. But, with other tribes who had partici- 
pated in their adventure, they contributed a new and turbulent 
element to the mixed races of Northern India. In the sixth 
century they found their niche in the elastic structure of Hindu 
society and were accepted as Kshatriyas. 


1 Sykes, History of Persia, vol. i, p. 8. 


/ 


THE HINDU PERIOD 17 


Karly in the seventh century there arose another outstanding 
figure, who continued, though upon a lesser scale, the Maurya- 
Gupta tradition. King Harsha, whose capital was Kanauj, 
succeeded in subjugating the country now known as the United 


_ Provinces and Bihar, together with a great part of Bengal. 


He even attempted to extend his sway into the Deccan, but 
was defeated by a Raja of Huna extraction. In Harsha’s time 
came the famous Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang, who remained 
in India between 680 and 643. The picture which he gives 
of the condition of the country in the early seventh century 
is in striking contrast with that of his predecessor Fa Hien. 
Everywhere he encountered pathetic evidence of past greatness 
and present decay—pasture-land overrun with savage beasts, 
vast ruined cities set in the wilderness and inhabited only by a 
few poor peasants. The roads were unsafe, and he had some 
unpleasant experiences with bandits. Buddhism was defi- 
nitely on the down-grade as compared with the Brahmanical 
system. He was, however, impressed by the wealth of 
Harsha, as well as by that monarch’s remarkable habit of 
distributing his savings in the form of largesse every five 
years. Harsha died about 646; and an insult to a Chinese 
envoy led to an invasion of his kingdom by Srong Tsan 
Gampo, ruler of Tibet, who annexed Nipal and occupied 
Tirhut. He introduced Buddhism into his own country, and 
imported from India the alphabet which is still used in 
Tibet. 

A period of confusion followed his invasion; and very little 


- indeed is known about events between aA.p. 650 and a.p. 1200. 


Warlike clans of mixed blood spread over Upper India, sub- 
duing the older royal families and changing the boundaries of 
their kingdoms. These clans became known as Rajputs, sons 
of Kings, and were admitted by the Brahmans to the rank of 
Kshatriyas. Some were of pre-Aryan stock; others of Huna ; 
others seem to have been chosen by their kinsfolk as an 
alternative to intolerable anarchy. It is clear that the designa- 
tion Rajput originally denoted rank and not race. From the 
end of the seventh to the thirteenth century Northern India 
was in a state of troubled disintegration. 

In the south, however, the Tamil Kingdoms largely held 
their own. The most famous, the Chola, was renowned for its 
fleet and for its flourishing trade. 

Wide as were the ethnical differences that separated these 
peoples from the mixed population of Upper India, they had 
become saturated with the culture of the Ganges Valley. They 

IN—2 


18 BEFORE PLASSEY 


rejected the Buddhist evangel and entered the fold of Brah- 
manism. 

We have now briefly surveyed the genesis and growth of 
a great system which, including in close union the social and 
religious organisation of human life, developed gradually in 
the Ganges Valley and spread in course of time over the whole 
of India. The chief historical events of those far-away cen- 
turies which we may call the exclusively Hindu period have 
been summarised. 

We have seen the rise of Buddhism and its eventual failure 
in the land of its birth. We have noticed the emergence of 
two great but short-lived Hindu empires, fugitive intervals in 
centuries of disintegration which, while they lasted, presented 
remarkable features. We have observed the conquest of 
successive hosts of invaders by Hindu culture. We now pass 
on to observe the arrival of more invaders, differing from all 
their predecessors in their allegiance to a positive, unifying, 
militant religion. Between them and the Hindus there could 
be no assimilation. But, forced in upon itself by Muhammadan 
conquest, Hinduism nevertheless preserved its ancient vitality 
completely unimpaired. 


II 
THE MUHAMMADAN PERIOD TO THE DEATH OF AKBAR 


WITHIN eighty years from the death of the prophet Muham- 
mad in A.D. 632 his successors, the Arab Khalifs, spiritual and 
temporal sovereigns, became masters of Egypt, Arabia, Persia, 
Western Turkistan and Sind. They imposed their religion at 
the point of the sword, or compelled those who would not 
accept it to ransom their lives by money payments. 

Early in the eighth century the province of Sind was ruled 
by a young Muslim Arab general, Muhammad Bin Kazim, 
and thereafter for centuries was dominated by Arabs. But 
when Islam came in force to India it came by the north gate 
through Afghan converts, who had themselves accepted the 
creed of the Prophet but recently. Notable among these was 
Sabuktagin, the founder of the mountain kingdom of Ghazni. 
His raids were limited to the Punjab. His hardy warriors 
scattered loose temporary combinations of Rajas, acquiring 
large booty which they carried off in triumph to their native 
mountains. 


MUHAMMADAN PERIOD TO DEATH OF AKBAR 19 


In 997 Sabuktagin’s place was taken by his son, the famous 
Mahmud of Ghazni who, between the date of his accession and 
A.D. 1027, the year of his death, conducted seventeen raids 
into India, penetrating as far as Benares in one direction and 
Somnath in another. He not only seized and removed many 
precious objects, but destroyed things destructible which bore 
traces of non-Muslim hands. Hindu temples and shrines were 
burnt or razed to the ground. Hindu images were broken into 
fragments or carried away to form road-metal. The treasures 
of India went to enrich the city of Ghazni; and Mahmud’s 
court became famous for its splendour. Before he died he 
annexed a large part of the Punjab and probably some Sind 
territory. He had found that the Rajput’s chiefs and their 
retainers were seldom able to resist for long the fiery onslaught 
of the mountaineers of Central Asia, to whom victory stood 
for plunder and death for paradise. He had so weakened the 
power of the Rajput chiefs of Northern India that their subju- 
gation became easy for subsequent hordes of invaders. 

Mahmud’s dynasty endured till the year a.p. 1150, when 
it was crushed and obliterated by a prince of the neighbouring 
kingdom of Ghor. Between 1191 and 1206 Muhammad Ghori 
and his lieutenants established unchallenged supremacy in 
Northern India, breaking completely the power of the Rajput 
chieftains and the political structure of the country. Even 
Bihar and Bengal were overrun. On the assassination of 
Mahmud in 1206 the bulk of his dominions passed to Katub- 
ud-din Aibak, a Turk who, as was the custom of the time, 
had been elevated to high office from among the slaves of his 
master on account of his personal force and ability. He suc- 
ceeded in maintaining unimpaired the heritage of which he 
took possession, and founded the dynasty of the *‘ Slave Kings ”’ 
of Delhi. The first of the historical cities known collectively 
as Delhi had been built near the close of the tenth century a.p. 
_ It now became the headquarters of the ‘‘ Slave Sultans,’’ who 
for eighty-four years predominated in Northern India, relying 
on the swords of their Muslim followers and terrorising their 
Hindu subjects. 

In 1290 they were succeeded by the Khilji dynasty, the most 
notable member of which, Ala-ud-din, required his advisers 
to draw up “‘rules and regulations for grinding down the 
Hindus, and for depriving them of that wealth and property 
which foster disaffection and rebellion.’ The Khilji in time 
gave place to the Tughlak Sultans, who also followed a policy 
of ruthless repression of Hindus. In 1840 the empire of 


20 BEFORE PLASSEY 


Muhammad-bin-Tughlak included Northern India and much 
of the peninsula over which, although a man of culture and 
talent, he ruled with fanatical ferocity. Obedience to his 
authority varied necessarily in degree from province to pro- 
vince, being largely determined by proximity to or distance 
from Delhi. But it is certain that he possessed power sufficient 
to cause a vast amount of human misery. 

The Muslim invaders were a comparatively small minority 
who fought with the consciousness that they must conquer or 
perish. They were bound together by a fierce religious enthu- 
siasm against which Hinduism, dominated by the caste system 
and the creed of Karma, afforded no counteracting stimulus, 
They were eaters of meat from mountains and cool climates, 
stronger and heavier generally than opponents nurtured on 
vegetarian diet in the enervating atmosphere of the Gangetic 
plain, split by countless divisions and lacking effective leaders. 
Ruling by terrorism, the new-comers multiplied rapidly, re- 
cruiting their ranks by immigrants from Central Asia and by 
Hindu converts. Their fanaticism was often tempered by 
discretion, and their Sultans sometimes contented themselves 
with merely exacting tribute from ruling Rajas. The vastness 
of India, the lack of communications, the torrential rains of 
monsoon seasons, impeded centralised administration; and 
many Hindu principalities and village-communities were seldom 
disturbed by the new-comers. As time went on, Muslims and 
Hindus reacted on each other, and evolved a common language 
in the shape of Urdu (the ‘* camp-tongue’’), which was Hindi 
intermixed with Persian and in a less degree with Arabic. 
Seclusion of women, according to Muslim custom, became widely 
prevalent among high-caste Hindus; and once an unsuccessful 
effort was made to find a creed which would attract Muslims 
and Hindus. 

The power of the Delhi Sultans was constantly menaced 
from the north-west, notably by the Mongols under the con- 
quering Chingiz Khan, and after his time. From the south, 
too, they were threatened with overthrow by revolting vassals. 
In 13847 Zafar Khan, the Afghan or Turki governor of the 
Deccan, founded the so-called Bahmani Kingdom; and when 
Muhammad-bin-Tughlak died in 1851, a Hindu empire was 
rising farther south with a new capital named Vijayanagar 
(city of victory). The Delhi Sultanate was shrinking rapidly 
when in 1898 Amir Timur of Samarqand, the famous Tamerlane, 
undertook the conquest of India with the professed object of 
restoring Islam in all its purity. 


MUHAMMADAN PERIOD TO DEATH OF AKBAR 21 


A Central Asian Turk and a zealous Muslim, Timur had 
conquered a large tract of Central Asia when in 1398 he de- 
spatched Pir Muhammad, one of his grandsons, to annex the 
Punjab. Late in the same year he crossed the Indus himself, 
at the head of 90,000 of his famous cavalry, and put to the 
sword all who resisted him, brushing aside the forces which 
Sultan Mahmud Tughlak had collected for the defence of 
Delhi. He then occupied the capital and extorted a large 
ransom. In the process of collection, disputes arose, with the 
result that Delhi was subjected to sack for five days. So 
thoroughly was the city gutted of all its treasures that it is 
said that only copper coin was to be found in it for the next 
half-century. In addition to plundering the city, Timur 
enslaved a large number of its inhabitants, carrying away 
with him, when he retired, hundreds of skilled artisans, whom 
he proposed to employ on the adornment of Samargand. From 
Delhi he marched to Meerut, which he captured, massacring 
the inhabitants and making his way back to his own country, 
where he set to work to plan an invasion of China; but fortu- 
nately for that country, death removed him in the year 1405 
before his project had attained maturity. 

For more than half a century after Timur’s departure the 
Sultanate of Delhi remained in abeyance. Bengal, under an 
Afghan ruler, became entirely independent ; and a new Afghan 
principality sprang up, with its capital at Jaunpur. The 
Punjab remained under rulers nominally subject to the Sultans 
of Delhi, but in practice entirely independent. In 1450 one 
of these rulers, an Afghan or Pathan named Bahlol of the 
Lodi tribe, seized the throne of Delhi and proclaimed himself 
Sultan. He was successful in laying the foundations of an- 
other Empire, reconquered Jaunpur and extended his political 
influence as far as Benares and Bundelkhand. He founded a 
dynasty which came to an end when a rebellious Afghan chief 
in the Punjab invited Babar, King of Kabul, to overthrow the 
Delhi throne. 

Before proceeding to the story of Babar’s invasion, we are 
observe the position in the peninsula. South of the Narbada- 
Vindhya line a gradual extension of Muslim conquest had 
produced Muslim provincial governors, who soon developed 
into independent kings. Farther south Muslim progress was 
resisted by a powerful Hindu combination. Certain Kanarese 
feudal chiefs united to form an empire which, with its capital 
at Vijayanagar, would be strong enough to resist the invaders. 
For long the tide was stayed. Between the years 1482 and 


22 BEFORE PLASSEY 


1518 the Bahmani Kingdom, a source of untold misery to its 
Hindu subjects, split into five independent sultanates which 
constantly warred with each other and with the Vijayanagar 
Empire. Meantime many Persians, Turks, Arabs and Moghals 
settled in Southern India and married women of the country. 
The monuments of earlier Hindu civilisation suffered severely, 
and many Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam. In both 
the Muslim Sultanates and the Vijayanagar Empire the masses 
were kept in the strictest subjection. 

At last the Muslim Sultans of the Deccan combined for a 
great effort, and on January 238, 1565, at Talikota, decisively 
defeated Ram Raya, the de facto ruler of Vijayanagar, who 
was beheaded on the battlefield. The Hindu capital was 
pillaged and reduced to ruins amid scenes of savage massacre 
and terror. The descendants of the Emperors were reduced 
to the position of petty chiefs. Thus perished an organised 
and highly cultured autocracy which had been a stronghold 
and a refuge to southern Hinduism. But we must return to 
Northern India, which had meantime succumbed to the domina- 
tion of fresh invaders. 

Zahir-ud-din Muhammad, known to history as Babar (the 
Tiger), was a descendant: of Timur. In the year 1483 he was 
born at Ferghana in Central Asia. At eleven he found himself 
successor to his father as ruler of his country and was compelled 
at once to fight his uncles, who claimed the throne. At fourteen 
he took Samarqand after a long siege. Later on he lost both 
Samarqand and Ferghana; and after some fruitless years of 
exile and fighting, turning his back on his native country, at 
the head of a band of Turkomans he captured Kabul. Between 
the years 1519 and 1526 he invaded India four times. Early 
in 1526 he tried a fifth invasion, when, as he writes in his 
memoirs, ‘‘ God most High, of His mercy and grace, cast down 
and defeated so powerful an enemy as Sultan Ibrahim”’ (of 
Delhi) ‘“‘and made me master and conqueror of the mighty 
Empire of Hindustan.”’ 

Babar claimed kinship on his mother’s side with the Mongol 
or Moghal conqueror Chingiz Khan, but he always called him- 
self a Turk. In India, however, he was popularly ascribed to 
the race from which the dreaded Chingiz Khan had sprung. 

On April 21, 1526, Babar, at the head of an army of Turko- 
mans, Mongols and Afghans, numbering only 12,000, camp- 
followers included, but aided by a park of artillery, routed the 
hosts of Sultan Ibrahim on the historic field of Panipat near 
Delhi. His adversaries, he writes, ‘* dispersed like carded wool 


MUHAMMADAN PERIOD TO DEATH OF AKBAR 238 


before the wind, and like moths scattered abroad.’ The 
Sultan and 15,000 of his followers were left dead on the field, 
and Babar occupied Agra and Delhi. In subsequent battles 
he defeated first a great Hindu confederacy under Rana San- 
gram Singh, the Rajput chief of the Mewar or Chitor State, 
and next the army of the Afghan rulers of Bengal and Bihar. 
Thus he made himself master of the plains of Upper India from 
the north-west frontier to the border of Bengal, winning over 
by his success and by the power of a fine personality many of 
the soldiers of his vanquished adversaries. But before he 
could establish a system of organised administration in the wide 
territories which he had annexed, he died at Agra at the age of 
forty-seven. His memoirs, written in Turki and since translated 
into Persian and English, abound in passages of vivid interest. 
He did not like India, and pined for the cool of his native 
mountains. By his own strong desire his body was taken to 
Kabul, where it now rests in a garden on a hill, which he had 
himself described as ‘‘ the sweetest spot in the neighbourhood.’’ 

Severe and ruthless if judged by modern standards, Babar 
was yet a man of fine qualities. He is lauded by the Persian 
historian Farishta as liberal and generous, disarming vice and 
making “‘ the wicked admire his virtue.”” He was strong, bold, 
courageous in the highest degree and possessed an iron physique. 
He was not only a great soldier, but a poet and a writer. 

After his death his dominions were divided. Of his sons 
Kamran became King of Kabul and Kandahar, and Humayun 
succeeded to the Indian conquests. Humayun’s days were 
few and troubled. At first he suffered defeat from Sher Shah, 
an Afghan chief who was master in Bihar. Driven into Sind 
by Sher Shah, Humayun eventually sought refuge in Persia. 
There the reigning monarch, Shah Tahmasp, belonged to the 
Shia school of Muslims, which refuses to recognise the Khilafat 
(tenure of office as Khalifa) of the first three successors of the 
Prophet as genuine, and declares the fourth Khalifa, Ali the 
Prophet’s son-in-law, to be the only true Khalifa. Humayun 
himself belonged to the Sunni sect, which, basing its allegiance 
on the sunnas, or precedents, recognises the Khilafat of 
Muhammad’s three immediate successors as well as that of 
Ali. Feeling between Shias and Sunnis often runs high in 
India. 

Shah Tahmasp insisted on Humayun’s becoming a Shia, 
and helped him to recover Kandahar from his brother Kamran, 
whom eventually he expelled from Kabul, imprisoned and 
blinded. In July 1555 he recovered Delhi and Agra; but in 


24 | BEFORE PLASSEY 


January 1556 he died of injuries received from a fall, Jeaving 
two sons, Akbar, aged thirteen, and Muhammad Hakim, aged 
ten. He had placed the latter in nominal command at Kabul. 

On his father’s death Akbar was proclaimed sovereign of 
Hindustan. Sher Shah, too, had died, after proving himself a 
strong and able ruler; but two of his nephews aspired to 
succeed him; and while these were disputing, Hemu, the 
minister of one, a Hindu grain-merchant by caste, seized 
Agra and Delhi and proclaimed himself king. This pretension 
was strongly resisted by Bairam Khan, Akbar’s guardian, who 
on November 5, 1556, met and defeated Hemu in a pitched 
battle at Panipat. Hemu was killed; and, after the savage 
fashion of the time, the heads of the slain were piled up in the 
shape of a tower. Agra and Delhi were occupied by the 
victors, and the pretensions of Sher Shah’s nephews were 
decisively disposed of. Akbar owed much to Bairam Khan, 
from whose tutelage, however, he speedily emancipated himself 
as soon as the imperial authority had been established over 
Delhi and its adjacent districts. Then he set himself at once 
to recover all the territory conquered by Babar, to add to it 
further territory and to weld the whole into a mighty empire. 
He possessed the personal qualities necessary to achieve suc- 
cess; and he decided early that to make success of lasting 
value an altogether new policy must be adopted. No Indian 
empire could be stable unless it rested on the goodwill of 
Hindus as well as Muslims. He reversed the fanatical policy 
of previous Sultans, and abolished the hated jizya (poll-tax 
on non-Muslims). Early in life he married a Rajput prin- 
cess who became the mother of his successor, the Emperor 
Jehangir. 

The Rajput clans which had once ruled over the rich Gan- 
getic plains had been driven by earlier Muhammadan invaders 
to choose between living in subjection to their conquerors and 
carving out elsewhere a new and poorer dominion. Some had 
elected to stay where they were, dominating villages in strong 
communities, and paying such land-tax as the sovereign of 
the day was able to enforce. Others had migrated, southward 
and westward, into regions where the country was arid and 
difficult and attack could at least be resisted. There they re- 
mained under chiefs of prominent clans. Their confederacy, 
headed by the chief of Udaipur, had been vanquished by 
Babar. But it was Akbar who, first of the Moghals, after 
capturing the Rajput citadel of Chitor, killing the leader of 
the defenders, and massacring 80,000 of the country people 


MUHAMMADAN PERIOD TO DEATH OF AKBAR 25 


who had assisted them, set himself to win Rajput support for 
his throne. Some chiefs were created dignitaries of the Empire. 
Some gave wives to the Emperor. But the clans of Mewar 
never submitted to him. 

Employing in his State and army men of all creeds, and 
holding that, to use his own words, “‘a monarch should ever 
be intent on conquest, otherwise his neighbours rise in arms 
against him,” Akbar gradually extended his dominion in all 
directions until it covered all the provinces of Northern India 
including Kashmir, Sind and Orissa, Khandesh in the Deccan, 
and Afghanistan from Kabul southwards. But the mountain 
country west of the Indus remained independent, Akbar’s 
soldiers simply endeavouring to keep open the passes. The 
boundary of his empire at the time of his death reached the 
west coast between Guzerat and Bombay, but in that direction 
included conquests which had hardly been assimilated. In 
Rajputana too and elsewhere there were chiefs and tribes 
whose allegiance was uncertain. Yet it is true that Akbar 
in his forty years of warfare united under one organised govern- 
ment Hindus and Muslims, Rajputs and Afghans, the numerous 
races and tribes of Upper India. 

His army consisted mainly of irregular contingents raised 
and commanded by autonomous chiefs or by mansabdars 
(place-holders). His empire was largely composed of pro- 
tected States, the chiefs of which furnished contingents in time 
of war and paid tribute more or less regularly. But the man- 
sabdars, or commanders of levies of horsemen, were the 
backbone of the army, for small reliance was placed on in- 
fantry and artillery, the guns being very inferior. Chiefs and 
mansabdars were expected to provide their commands with all 
necessities, but drill and uniformity in dress or arms were not 
exacted. Ordinarily the Emperor allowed his camps to be 
encumbered with much superfluous equipage ; but on occasion 
he would dispense with all imperial pomp and travel lightly. 
Supplies were provided by large markets marching with the 
camps, conducted by the wandering Banjaras, who then and 
long after were the commissariat of Indian armies. Man- 
sabdars of the higher grades were known as Amirs or Omrah 
(nobles), Akbar generally paid all mansabdars by cash 
salaries. He disliked the alternative system of granting them 
jagirs, revenue-free fiefs, as jagirdars, holders of ‘‘ jagirs,’’? were 
apt to seek independence. 

The organisation of the Empire established by Akbar will 
be described in a subsequent chapter. Here it suffices to say 


26 BEFORE PLASSEY 


that the Emperor himself was absolute master, heir and 
disposer of all his subjects. All institutions derived their 
sanction from his will and pleasure. As general, statesman 
and ruler he shone pre-eminent. His great qualities and per- 
sonal force, his originality, his untiring ambition, dazzled and 
compelled his multitudinous subjects. His interests were many 
and varied. Like many of the old Sultans of Delhi, he devoted 
great attention to building and architecture. The deserted 
palace-city of Fatihpur Sikri and its noble ‘‘ Gate of Victory ”’ 
still proclaim the glories of his reign. Although unable to 
read, he was believed to have mastered the contents of 
many books; and liberally patronising letters, he collected an 
enormous library of manuscripts, among which were Persian 
translations of Sanskrit epics prepared by his orders. In 
religion he was profoundly interested. His son had declared 
that ‘‘ never for one moment did he forget God.” Originally 
a Sunni Muslim, he studied not only the ancient faiths of 
India, but also the Christianity taught by the Portuguese 
Jesuits whom he received at his Court. Finally he rejected 
Islam and promulgated a new ‘‘ Divine Monotheism’”’ which 
attracted no support. 

Physically he was as strong and active as his grandfather 
Babar; but he suffered from a kind of epilepsy which at times 
plunged him into melancholy and drove him to seek relief in 
field sports. He was a splendid horseman and shot, willing 
and eager in all circumstances to risk his life. 

His great career closed in gloom. His eldest son, Prince 
Salim, afterwards the Emperor Jehangir, rebelled and pro- 
cured the atrocious murder of Abul Fazl, his father’s trusted 
minister. After this father and son were never really recon- 
ciled. Two other sons had already died of ‘‘ delirium tremens.” 
Akbar did not reduce to submission all the Muslim kingdoms 
of the Deccan or the Portuguese on the western coast, whose 
artillery was far superior to his own. At sea he was powerless. 
Yet when he died in October 1605, at the age of sixty-two, he 
had organised and welded together a mighty dominion. His 
obsequies were hurried and perfunctory. Only his successor, 
Jehangir, and a few other persons wore mourning, all resuming 
their ordinary garb before sunset. Eighty-six years later his 
remains were stolen from his splendid tomb at Sikandra, near 
Agra. They were burnt; but his fame is immortal. 


THE MOGHAL EMPIRE FROM 1605 TO 1707 27 


III 
THE MOGHAL EMPIRE FROM 1605 TO 1707 


AXKBAR was succeeded by his son Jehangir, who, after repressing 
a rebellion of his son Prince Khusru, reigned from 1605 to 
1627; and Jehangir was succeeded by his son Shah Jehan, 
who reigned from 1628 to 1659. Jehangir continued his 
father’s tolerant and prudent policy. Although notoriously a 
drunkard and violent in temper, susceptible moreover to the 
intrigues of his queen Nur Mahal and her brother, he was a 
capable ruler. His son Prince Khurram rebelled, and was in 
rebellion when Jehangir died. Prince Khurram then, after 
wholesale executions of his male relatives, became Emperor 
under the name of Shah Jehan. Although born of a Rajput 
mother, he was a stricter Muslim than either his father or 
grandfather. His orthodoxy was fortified by the influence of 
his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal, the mother of fourteen of 
his children, who lies by his side at Agra in the glorious mau- 
soleum which he erected to do her honour. 

Although generally tolerant to his Hindu subjects, Shah 
Jehan was subject to fits of fanatical zeal, and in 1632 deter- 
mined to stop the building of Hindu temples, giving orders 
that everywhere those under construction should be cast down. 
It is reported that in the district of Benares alone 76 temples 
were destroyed. In spite of this aberration, Shah Jehan was 
a wise ruler. He chose his ministers with discrimination, 
looked after his finances himself and endeavoured to enforce 
equitable and effective administration. He dazzled his people 
by gorgeous display and was certainly the most popular of his 
house. But in 1681 he lost his beloved Mumtaz Mahal; and 
as he grew old he devoted himself to sensual pleasures, leaving 
his empire to be administered by others and fought over by 
his four sons. The fight was fierce; and the prize fell to the 
third son Aurangzeb, a man of thirty-eight, after a furious 
battle at Samugarh near Agra with the forces of Dara, the 
eldest son, who was strongly supported by a great Rajput 
contingent. Aurangzeb then imprisoned his father, who 
survived in comfortable captivity for another seven years. 
Proclaiming himself Emperor on May 26, 1659, Aurangzeb 
assumed the title of Alamgir,’ and four months later ordered 
the unfortunate Dara to execution. Another brother shared 


1 World-conqueror. 


28 BEFORE PLASSEY 


the same fate in the following year, and a third brother was 
driven from the country. 

Aurangzeb owed his success to his established reputation 
as a cool, courageous soldier. In 1647 his father had sent 
him to establish the imperial authority in Balkh and Badak- 
shan, once the dominions of Babar and recently recovered for 
his descendants. Aurangzeb, however, finding those regions 
untenable, had restored them to the Uzbegs, and had led the 
imperial forces back to Kabul with considerable loss but with 
coolness and judgment. Again, he had commanded two 
unsuccessful expeditions for the recovery of Kandahar and 
had proved himself a steady and intrepid leader. In the middle 
of a battle with the Uzbegs, at the hour of evening prayer, 
although under fire, he had calmly dismounted and discharged ~ 
his religious duties. The strictest of Muslims, he possessed all 
the courage of his forefathers Akbar and Babar. During the 
battle of Samugarh at a critical moment he had ordered the 
legs of his elephant to be chained together in order that retreat 
might be rendered impossible. The French doctor Bernier, 
who saw much of his court, calls him ‘‘ a versatile and rare 
genius, a consummate statesman and a great king.” Yet his 
reign was a long tragedy. 

In the first place, to his ruin, he reversed the tolerant and 
liberal policy bequeathed by Akbar. Obsessed with fanatical 
zeal, in the name of Islam he persecuted the Hindu majority 
of his subjects; he destroyed their temples; he revived the 
poll-tax on non-Muslims. 

The strongest indictment of his policy is contained in the 
following protest addressed to him by an unknown Hindu: 

‘* Such were the benevolent intentions of your ancestors 
[Akbar, Jehangir, Shah Jehan]. While they pursued those 
great and generous principles, wheresoever they directed their 
steps, conquest and prosperity went before them; and then 
they reduced many countries to their obedience. During your 
Majesty’s reign, many have been alienated from the Empire, 
and further loss of territory must follow, since devastation 
and rapine now universally prevail without restraint. Your 
subjects are trampled under foot, and every province of your 
Empire is impoverished; depopulation spreads, and diffi- 
culties accumulate. If your Majesty places any faith in these 
books by distinction called divine, you will there be instructed 
that God is the God of all mankind, not the God of the Muham- 
madans alone. The Pagan and the Mussalman are equally 
in His presence. Distinctions of colour are of His ordination. 


THE MOGHAL EMPIRE FROM 1605 TO 1707 29 


It is He who gives existence. In your temples, to His name 
the voice is raised in prayer; in a house of images, when the 
bell is shaken, still He is the object of adoration. To vilify 
the religion or the customs of other men is to set at naught 
the pleasure of the Almighty. . .. In fine, the tribute you 
demand from the Hindus is repugnant to justice ; it is equally 
foreign from good policy, and it must impoverish the country ; 
moreover, it is an innovation and an infringement of the: Laws 
of Hindostan.” 

But all such words fell on deaf ears, and although Aurangzeb 
did not disdain marriage with Rajput princesses, his bitter and 
relentless fanaticism led inevitably to Rajput rebellion. Raj- 
puts had fought stoutly for his predecessors since the days of 
Akbar. 

In the second place Aurangzeb’s cold and suspicious nature, 
his asceticism and frugal simplicity, were repugnant to the 
majority of his subjects who admired the profuse splendour 
and display of his forefathers. 

In the third place his determination to carry on to a finish 
the subjugation of the Muslim sultans of the Deccan, which 
had been begun by his predecessors Akbar and Shah Jehan, 
involved him in constant war. The Kings of Bijapur and 
Golkonda had remained unsubdued; and the fact that these 
potentates were Shias, and therefore in his opinion heretics, 
was sufficient to fire the bigotry of Aurangzeb. After prolonged 
and weary efforts, he succeeded in crushing both potentates, 
but at the cost of gravely weakening the whole structure of 
his Empire and affording golden opportunities to the most 
dangerous of his foes the Maratha, Sivaji. 

Maharashtra, the home of the Marathas, is that part of the 
Deccan which is bisected by the western Ghats and extends 
from the Satpura Hills on the north to Goa on the south. On 
the east it is approximately bounded by the Vardha River, 
and on the west by the sea.1_ The Konkan is that portion of 
Maharashtra which lies between the Ghats and the sea, a 
narrow strip of rugged country untraversed by roads in Aurang- 
zeb’s days and largely covered by forest jungle. The remaining 
portion is the Deshast or hilly tableland which lies to the 
east of the Ghats. The features of Maharashtra account 
largely for the physical characteristics of the Marathas, who 
are sturdy, laborious and persevering, Hindus by religion and 
mainly agriculturists by profession. Spiritually they are 
directed by Brahmans of various sects, of which the most 


1 Grant Duff’s History of the Marathas (Edwardes), pp. 3-4 (n.). 


30 BEFORE PLASSEY 


notable is the Konkanasth or Chitpavan. These, by reason 
of their capacity and ambition, have played a prominent part 
in history. There are also Rajputs and Vaish, representatives 
of the military and mercantile castes; but the large majority 
of Marathas are Kunbis, who belong to the servile class. Others 
spring from the intermixed progeny of various castes, and each 
caste is liberally subdivided. 

Marathas generally are descended to a considerable extent 
from the original inhabitants of Maharashtra, and early in the 
seventeenth century were subjects of the Muslim Sultans of 
the Deccan, speaking a vernacular dialect founded on Sanskrit, 
producing occasionally ascetics and poets who dealt with 
religious subjects. Politically they were disunited and there- 
fore impotent. Frequently they stood in array against each 
other, fighting for one or other of their Muslim sovereigns. 
Their country was practically divided between Bijapur and 
Ahmadnagar. Both before and after Moghal invasion of the 
Deccan, Marathas fought as free companions, sometimes for 
one Muslim power and sometimes for another. 

Sivaji was the son of one of these free companions, and was 
born in May 1627, eight years after the birth of Aurangzeb. 
As a child he fell much under Brahman influence and took 
pleasure in hearing tales gathered from the Hindu epics. He 
detested all Muhammadans, regarding them as foreign tyrants. 
Bold and adventurous by nature, he was content to leave 
reading and writing to Brahmans and grew up a good archer, 
marksman and rider. From the age of sixteen he began to 
talk of becoming an independent ruler; and gradually gather- 
ing round him bands of his brother Marathas, he began opera- 
tions as a robber chief. He was singularly successful and, 
going on to attack Muslim forts, at last contrived the destruc- 
tion of a force sent against him by the King of Bijapur. At 
a conference before the engagement he slew Afzal Khan the 
general with his own hand, and by guerrilla tactics subsequently 
baffled an army sent to the Deccan by Aurangzeb. His power 
increased rapidly. His aim was independent sovereignty. 

In June 1674 at his fortress of Raigarh, Sivaji was invested 
by a Brahman from Benares, the sacred city of the Hindus, 
with the sacred thread which marked his formal admission to 
the Kshatriya caste. He was then crowned and anointed as 
Raja, after the manner of ancient Kshatriya kings. After- 
wards he availed himself of Aurangzeb’s entanglement in hos- 
tilities with the wild Afghan tribes on the north-west frontier 
to acquire territory in the far south; and when he died, in 1680, 


THE MOGHAL EMPIRE FROM 1605 TO 1707 31 


he had established a dominion which consisted partly of swaraj 
districts! governed by the Raja, and partly of a right to levy 
blackmail in the shape of chaut, one-fourth of the ordinary 
land-tax, on territories belonging to other powers, together 
with, in certain cases, sardeshmukhi, an additional 10 per 
eent. Such exactions entailed the maintenance of intricate 
accounts; and as the warrior Marathas despised letters, they 
were entirely dependent on their Brahmans for their financial 
arrangements. 

The government of the swaraj rested with the Raja and a 
eouncil of eight Brahman ministers, of whom the chief was the 
Peishwa or prime minister. Over the various districts into 
which this territory was divided were officers supported by eight 
principal assistants who dealt with correspondence and ac- 
counts. Revenue assessment was made on the crops, the 
State taking two-fifths of the out-turn. Dr. Fryer, an eye- 
witness, says that taxes were collected with extreme rigour 
and brutality. But, in spite of this feature of his rule, Sivaji’s 
success, his religious tendencies, his reverence for Brahmans, 
made him popular among his Hindu subjects. Even Muham- 
madans respected some qualities of their redoubtable adver- 
sary. For while the famous Maratha was a consummate 
guerrilla leader, and did not scruple to attack caravans and 
appropriate property, he would allow no harm to mosques, or 
to copies of the Koran, or to any woman. When unprotected 
Muhammadan women were captured by his men, they were 
guarded carefully until their friends redeemed them with a 
suitable ransom. Female followers were not allowed in Sivaji’s 
armies. Discipline was strictly maintained; and death was 
the penalty for disobedience or grave neglect of duty. Never- 
theless the prime object of the Maratha soldiers was plunder. 
When a town or village was sacked, copper money, brass and 
copper vessels, the property of the lower orders, went to the 
finders ; articles of gold and silver, jewels, valuable stuffs, were by 
rule to be given up to officers and made over to the Government. 

‘The territory and treasures which Sivaji acquired,” says 
Grant Duff, ‘‘ were not so formidable to the Muhammadans 
as the example he set, the system and habits he introduced, 
and the spirit he infused. . . . To sum up, let us contrast his 
craft, plancy and humility with his boldness, firmness and 
ambition; his power of inspiring enthusiasm while he showed 
the coolest attention to his own interests ; the dash of a partisan 


i Literally “‘ districts held in independent sovereignty.”” The word “‘swaraj”’ 
comes down from Sanskrit literature. 


32 BEFORE PLASSEY 


adventurer with the order and economy of a statesman; and 
lastly, the wisdom of his plans, which raised the despised 
Hindus to sovereignty and brought about their own accomplish- 
ment, when the hand that formed them was low in the dust.”’ 

Aurangzeb was slow to realise the quality of Sivaji. At one 
time his generals succeeded in persuading the Maratha to agree 
to surrender a number of strongholds and to do homage at 
Delhi. But when Sivaji appeared in the Emperor’s hall of 
audience, he was allowed to stand unnoticed among third-class 
mansabdars. Furious at such treatment, he quitted the 
presence without taking ceremonious leave ; and escaping from 
Delhi, concealed in a hamper, he reoccupied all his forts. 
Shortly afterwards the Emperor acknowledged him as a Raja; _ 
but the concession came too late. Sivaji was for life Aurang- 
zeb’s implacable enemy. When in 1680 death removed the 
Maratha, Aurangzeb admitted that his foe was a great captain, 
but persisted in underrating the fighting qualities of the race 
from which Sivaji had sprung. The Emperor sent his sons 
to lay waste the Konkan; but the guerrilla tactics of the 
Marathas under Sivaji’s son Sambhaji completely baffled the 
imperial forces. 

At last, in 1690, after taking the field himself, Aurangzeb 
captured Sambhaji, who scornfully rejected an offer of pardon 
coupled with the condition of turning Mussulman, and was 
put to an ignominious death. But this only goaded the Mara- 
thas to further and bitterer resistance. They decoyed, baffled 
and slaughtered the Emperor’s troops, declining to fight except 
when they themselves chose, laughing at his heavy cavalry 
and matchlockmen who, as Bernier says, squatted on the 
ground, resting their pieces on a wooden fork which they 
carried on their backs, ‘‘ terribly afraid of burning their eye- 
lashes or beards, and above all lest some ‘ jin’ or evil spirit 
should cause the musket to burst.’’? The burning sun, the ~ 
depressing monsoon-seasons, the intrigues and luxury of the 
Imperial Court, had done their work on the descendants of 
those who had followed Babar from Kabul and found no 
obstacle too hard to overcome. The fanatical folly of Aurang- 
zeb had antagonised most of the Rajputs who had fought so 
stoutly for Akbar and Shah Jehan. The sturdy Marathas, 
caring nothing for comfort or luxury, fighting among their 
own hills and jungles, camped at pleasure round the grand 
army of the Empire, carting off supplies, carrying off elephants, 
plundering ammunition-wagons, harassing their enemies by 
night attacks. ‘Tropical rains added to the discomfort of 


THE MOGHAL EMPIRE FROM 1605 TO 1707 388 


the imperial troops. Once at midnight a river flooded the 
Emperor’s camp, sweeping thousands away with tents, horses 
and bullocks. In 1703 a division of his army was surprised 
on the banks of the Narbada and driven pell-mell into the 
river. 

At last, in 1706, Aurangzeb retreated to Ahmadnagar. Not 
only were the Marathas more powerful than ever, but the 
Rajputs were once more in arms, and near Delhi the Jats were 
in revolt. His own sons were against him. All that was 
left him was to die. ‘‘ Carry this creature of dust to the 
nearest burying-place,”’ he said, ‘‘ and lay it in the earth with- 
out any useless coffin.”” He expired on March 4, 1707, in the 
fiftieth year of his reign and the eighty-ninth of his life. He 
had seen ruin threatening his house. In the south were the 
Marathas; in the north the Rajputs were bitterly hostile ; 
while in the Punjab had arisen the formidable sect of the 
Sikhs. 

The Sikhs, or disciples, began as Hindu religious reformers. 
By race they are mostly Jats of the Punjab, belonging to the 
Indo-Aryan physical type, held in high repute as hardy yeo- 
men, ready either to take up arms or to follow the plough. 
In religion Jats are Hindus; but some have been converted 
to Islam. 

The founder of Sikhism among the Jats was Nanak a Rajput, 
a guru or teacher who lived from 1469 to 1539. He preached 
the unity of God, the futility of forms of worship and the un- 
reality of caste distinctions. He left behind him many earnest 
and admiring disciples, and was succeeded by other gurus. 
In 1577 Akbar granted to the fourth guru the site of the tank 
and Golden Temple at Amritsar, thus establishing that place 
as the religious capital of the Sikhs. Har Gobind, the sixth 
guru, began the conversion of a religious sect into a military 
fraternity, and came into conflict with the Emperors Jehangir 
and Shah Jehan. Tej Bahadur, the ninth guru, after en- 
- eouraging Hindu resistance to forcible conversion, was executed 
by order of Aurangzeb on refusal to embrace the creed of 
Islam. Gobind Singh, the tenth and last guru (1675-1708), 
organised his brethren into a military power, binding them 
together by two sacraments which were to be accepted by 
all the ‘* Khalisa’”’ (pure). The Adi Granth or original Sikh 
bible had already been dictated by Arjun, the sixth guru. 
Gobind Singh added a supplementary Granth and invented 
new names for God, the first the Akal (Immortal), the last the 
Asipani (the Sword in his Hand), the impersonation and source 


IN—3 


34 BEFORE PLASSEY 


of bravery. He commanded Sikhs to adopt the five K’s—five 
attributes the Punjabi names of which begin with the letter K 
—namely long hair, short drawers, an iron quoit, a small steel 
dagger and a comb. 

Gobind Singh was murdered by an Afghan in 1708; and 
since his decease the holy Granth has been the spiritual teacher 
of the Sikhs. As a military power they soon became formid- 
able. They were commanded by a Rajput convert of Gobind’s 
named Banda who, at the head of followers of the guru and 
a number of lawless men, inflamed by the cruel executions of 
Gobind’s sons by the Moghal commandant of Sirhind, obtained 
various successes, killed the obnoxious commandant and com- 
mitted atrocities. At one time Banda was supreme from Delhi 
to Peshawar. But in 1715 he was captured, was sent to Delhi 
in a cage and executed with many of his followers. An English 
eyewitness of the spectacle reported that the Sikhs vied with 
each other in contempt for death. These incidents, however, 
belong to a period when the Moghal Empire was waning fast ; 
and before going further, we will briefly examine its relations 
with its subjects in happier times. 


IV 
THE MOGHAL EMPIRE AND THE PEOPLE 


Wuen Akbar died in 1605 the Moghal Empire dominated 
Northern India, including Afghanistan and Kashmir, Guzerat 
and Sind, Orissa and most of modern Bengal. On the south 
it was bounded by the three remaining Muhammadan king- 
doms of the Deccan, Ahmadnagar, Golkonda and Bijapur. 
Beyond these, in the extreme south of the peninsula, were the 
territories of various Hindu chieftains who had once owed 
allegiance to the bygone Vijayanagar Empire. 

A century later Aurangzeb was approaching the close of 
his long life. His empire covered Northern India and most 
of Afghanistan. It stretched southwards almost to Cape 
Comorin. It had absorbed the Muslim kingdoms of the Deccan 
and much of the old Vijayanagar Empire. Yet already signs 
were manifest that its days were numbered. The Emperor, 
a bitter proselytiser, had for years been continuously at war 
in a country containing, as Bernier says, hundreds of Hindus 
to one Muhammadan. His empire was threatened by a new 
formidable Hindu power, animated by a nascent national spirit. 


THE MOGHAL EMPIRE AND THE PEOPLE — 85 


The prestige of his armies had much declined. By intem- 
perate fanaticism he had alienated or antagonised the Rajput 
clans. His Muslim soldiers were ill disciplined ; and Bernier 
wrote that 25,000 French veterans commanded by Condé or 
Turenne would overcome any number of the Imperial troops. 
On the sea the Moghal Empire had always been helpless ; and 
along its coasts European maritime Powers were establishing 
factories and forts. Still, the inheritors of Akbar’s glory stood 
in high repute and maintained considerable order over vast 
territories. 

No priest crowned or anointed the Emperor. The proclama- 
tion of his accession was prefaced with the praise of God and 
the Prophet. After recital of his titles, gold and silver coins 
were showered among his courtiers, who hailed him as the 
Khalifa of the age. The essential act of his coronation was 
the ‘“‘ jalsa”’ or sitting. .The supreme moment arrived when 
he took his seat on the throne. Emperors from Akbar onwards 
assumed the title of Khalifa, which had previously been adopted 
by Sher Shah. 

The splendour of the court in its palmy days dazzled the 
eyes of the populace and of foreign visitors. Sir Thomas Roe 
tells us that Jehangir on his birthday sat ‘* crosslegged upon a 
little throne, all clad in diamonds, pearles and rubies, before 
him a table of gold, on it about fifty pieces of gold plate, .. . 
his nobilitie about him in their best equipage whom he com- 
manded to drink froliquely, several wines standing by in great 
flagons.” Akbar and Jehangir held royal state at Agra; but 
Shah Jehan added a new city and palace to Delhi which thence- 
forth became the capital of the empire. 

‘* Nothing,” says Bernier, “can be conceived much more 
brilliant than the great square in front of the fortress [palace] 
at the hours when the Amirs, Rajas and Mansabdars repair 
to the citadel to mount guard or attend the Hall of Audience.”’ 
_ In this hall, which still recalls so many vanished splendours, 

the Emperor, when at headquarters, in order to be seen of his 
people, sat daily upon the famous throne of Shah Jehan studded 
with precious stones accumulated from the spoils of conquered 
kings and the gifts presented by nobles and feudatory chiefs. 
Gorgeous festivals were held on special anniversaries, when 
State processions were made to the noble mosque built by 
Shah Jehan. Elephant-fights provided excitement. Nobles 
and officers of State vied with each other in costly display. 
Even Aurangzeb, noted as he was for his simple habits, appre- 
ciated the importance of accessibility in the business of an 


36 BEFORE PLASSEY 


Eastern monarch, and for many years showed himselt con- 
stantly to his subjects *‘ high on a throne of royal state.” 

The Moghal court, however, was mainly a foreign court. 
The nobles, the governors, the generals who supported it, 
were largely of Turkish, Afghan or Persian descent. Adven- 
turers from Central Asia came to push their fortunes. The 
languages spoken were at first Turki and Persian, and later 
on Persian only. Urdu, or Persianised Hindi, developed 
gradually as a convenient method of communication between 
the conquerors and the conquered. Akbar had done his best 
to promote amity and union between his Muslims and the 
martial Rajputs. But his policy was less actively pursued 
by his son and grandson, and was vigorously reversed by 
Aurangzeb. 

Akbar’s military system and the position of ‘‘ mansabdars ”’ 
and feudal chiefs in his empire have already been described. 
We now turn to the system of civil administration which he 
transmitted to his descendants. The Emperor was absolute 
but was assisted by ministers. His empire contained feuda- 
tory States and subas (provinces) under subadars (governors). 
The Subadar was commander-in-chief of his province, which 
was divided into “ sarkars’’ or districts. District administra- 
tion was directed toward securing at all times sufficient soldiers 
and sufficient money. LHach district was placed in charge of 
a fauwjdar or commandant, who was responsible for keeping 
order and for supplying a local force of untrained infantry. 
He was assisted by an amalguzar, or tax-collector. 

In towns, peace and public order were the special care of 
an officer known as the kotwal. He was not only chief officer 
but chief judge, although judicial officials, known as kazis, 
dealt with questions arising out of Muslim civil law. Despotic 
power was wielded by faujdars and kotwals under lazy or 
incompetent subadars. The administration of justice was 
honeycombed with bribery, and officials generally made the 
most of fleeting opportunities, for their position was precarious, 
especially under Aurangzeb, who employed a staff of inspectors 
working in all provinces of his empire and informing him of 
all that passed. Theoretically subjects in the provinces could 
appeal to the Emperor, but ordinarily they made the best of 
the treatment accorded to them by their local rulers. ‘‘ Delhi 
dur ast ”’ (“‘ It is a long way to Delhi’’), ran the proverb; and 
communications were frequently deterrent. Even Akbar could 
exercise little supervision over distant tracts. 

India was then, as she is now, an agricultural country. 


THE MOGHAL EMPIRE AND THE PEOPLE § 387 


The land-revenue, or money equivalent of the State-share of 
agricultural produce, was and is her fiscal mainstay. Akbar’s 
Hindu finance minister, Raja Todar Mal, building on a founda- 
tion laid by the Afghan chief Sher Shah, who expelled Humayun, 
devised an elaborate method of assessment of crop-outturn 
based on measurement of land, classification of areas and 
adjustment of revenue-rates to classified areas. The State 
dues were theoretically one-third of the average outturn, cal- 
culated on the result of ten years’ experience. Investigation 
and calculations were performed by a large staff of officials. 

The Government sometimes realised revenue from the 
tenants through tax-collectors, whose offices were frequently 
hereditary ; at other times it contracted with landholders (zamin- 
dars) for payment of dues from villages under their protection ; 
and sometimes the Emperor or his Viceroy granted fiefs (jagirs) 
to generals or favourites revenue-free. Tax-collectors often 
became zamindars; but many of the latter were Rajput chiefs 
or proprietary communities, who still exercised much authority 
over the masses. We know that numbers of the Rajas and 
Rajputs of an earlier generation had abandoned the Gangetic 
plain for the less fertile lands of Rajputana, where they main- 
tained independence till the time of Akbar. But numbers 
remained, leaders in their village communities, whom they 
protected, as best they could, from the invasions, persecutions 
and exactions of the early Muhammadan conquerors. 

During the period of disintegration which immediately pre- 
ceded the establishment of the Moghal Empire, Rajas and 
Rajputs recovered much of their pristine power. But then 
came the days of Babar and Humayun; and at last Akbar, 
establishing a powerful central government, desired to con- 
ciliate, and to recruit soldiers from, the strongest and most 
national section of his Hindu subjects. Some Rajas were 
permitted to hold certain villages free of tax; others paid 
revenue but were allowed special dues at each harvest. Aurang- 
zeb indeed pursued another policy with ruinous effect ; but in 
the Empire’s palmy days the position of the Rajput land- 
holders, although frequently assailed by Muslim settlers, 
Muslim governors or Muslim tax-gatherers, was the best com- 
patible with circumstances. Over the tenants and village 
labourers they ruled with the authority with which Brahman- 
ism invested them, unless indeed any of these, disgusted with 
the serfdom decreed to them, sought escape in conversion to 
Islam. Some zamindars and many jagirdars were Muslims. 

The peasants themselves had far less security of tenure and 


38 BEFORE PLASSEY 


far less hope of reaping the fruits of their labour than they 
have in modern times. At the commencement of his reign 
Jehangir found it necessary to order that the officials of the 
Crown-lands and the jagirdars should not forcibly take the 
ryots’ (tenants’) lands and cultivate them on their own account. 
Bernier states that owing to the tyranny of such persons the 
ground was, as a rule, only tilled under compulsion, and that 
no person wished or was able to repair the water-channels. 
Mr. Moreland holds, no doubt correctly, that the tenants of 
hereditary zamindars were better off than those of jagirdars, 
who were ordinarily strangers. Landlords and tenants alike 
lived in fear of losing their means of livelihood through war, 
rebellion or the devastating famines which then entailed heavy 
mortality and enslavement of children. 

The peasants themselves and their crops have so far changed 
but little since the seventeenth century. ‘* The plough and 
the ox, the millets and the rice, the pulses and the oil-seeds, 
and the whole traditions of the countryside link the India of 
to-day with the sixteenth century and with far earlier times 
in the history of the people.” ! But over many stretches of 
country the cultivators’ means of irrigation are now far superior 
to those of his far-away ancestors. ‘The present canal system 
belongs almost entirely to the nineteenth century. 

The village labourers were in a hopelessly servile position. 
It was very difficult for them, when decimated by famine, to 
obtain the slightest relief either at home or abroad. Travel 
was often very difficult and prospects of employment were 
scanty. There were no factories of importance. The produc- 
tion of gold, quicksilver, lead, zinc, was negligible. The output 
of copper was small; but that of iron was more considerable. 
Salt was obtained from the Punjab mines and the Sambhar 
Lake. There were various diamond-fields which absorbed a 
certain amount of labour, and there was a drift of villagers 
toward cities and armies. When an Emperor toured or de- 
parted on a leisurely campaign, his camp was joined by a host 
of followers of all kinds as well as by the shopkeepers of his 
capital. Bernier describes elaborately the organisation of 
one of Aurangzeb’s camps, peopled by a “ prodigious and 
almost incredible multitude.” Mr. Moreland concludes that 
although far less numerous than they are now, the rural masses 
of these times lived more hardly than they live in these, that 
a larger proportion of their surplus earnings was absorbed by 
the State, and that communal expenditure in the shape of 

1 Moreland, India at the Death of Akbar, p. 101. 


THE MOGHAL EMPIRE AND THE PEOPLE 39 


provision of medical or famine relief, education, means of 
communication, assistance to production, was either non- 
existent or of a very meagre description. 

Industries were largely concentrated in a few towns and 
cities and more especially at the capital. Bernier tells us 
that although workshops occupied by skilful artisans did not 
exist in Delhi city, this was not because there was ‘“‘ any in- 
ability in the people to cultivate the arts.”? In fact Indians 
made *‘ excellent muskets and fowling-pieces, and such beau- 
tiful gold ornaments that it might be doubted if the exquisite 
workmanship of those articles could be exceeded by any Euro- 
pean goldsmith.” Want of genius was not the reason why 
works of superior art were not exhibited in the Delhi shops. 
The reason was that unless protected by royal patronage, 
artists and manufacturers were harshly treated and inade- 
quately rewarded. But the Emperors themselves were patrons 
of art; and in the Imperial palace enclosure special workshops 
were provided for artificers, one hall for embroiderers, another 
for goldsmiths, another for painters, another for varnishers in 
lacquer-work, another for joiners, turners, tailors and shoe- 
makers, another for manufacturers of silk, brocade and fine 
muslins. 

It was such artistic exhibits, combined with a passion for 
gorgeous display in Imperial and Viceregal courts, which pro- 
duced on the minds of European travellers an illusory impres- 
sion of vast wealth. India indeed produced diamonds and 
other commodities which were eagerly sought for by peoples 
of foreign countries. She thereby secured a steady influx of 
the precious metals, so that travellers who viewed her under 
the influence of economic theories which are now exploded, 
and observed the display at courts and the time-honoured 
habit of hoarding gold and silver in circumstances which 
prevented their employment in reproduction, were apt to 
form erroneous ideas of her wealth. But if the relation of the 
income from all commodities to the total numbers of popu- 
lation! be considered, and it be remembered that persons 
employed in producing articles for foreign commerce can only 
have formed a small fraction of these total numbers, the in- 
ference follows that India was even then, although far more 
sparsely inhabited than she is now, a poor country. Her 
present great export trade in food-grains, oil-seeds and fibres 
was non-existent. Her communications were extremely meagre ; 


} Mr. Moreland estimates the population of India in Akbar’s days as “at 
least about 100 millions.” 


40 BEFORE PLASSEY 


and much land which is now under cultivation was then marsh 
and jungle. The submontane forests stretched far into the 
lains. 

In the next chapter Indian commerce with Europe in this 
period will be dealt with. India also possessed export markets 
in Asia. The products of her looms found their way to Arabia, 
Burma, the Spice Islands, China and the east coast of Africa. 
Bernier notices particularly the large quantity of silk stuffs 
and cotton cloths of every kind manufactured in Bengal. 
Producers generally would have profited more had they not 
been so much at the mercy of rulers prone to luxury and dis- 
play, holding office on precarious tenure. 

The professional classes, which have become prominent as 
the Congress party in modern times, were then represented | 
by clerks, merchants, doctors and minor functionaries at 
administrative centres. There were no practising lawyers, few 
secular teachers, no engineers, no journalists. Physicians, 
artists and authors sought the patronage of the great as the 
sole avenue to success. 

No court meddled with the hosts of ascetics and religious 
mendicants who subsisted on alms, as they do to-day. Nor, 
as a rule, did any Government concern itself with the primitive 
tribes of mountains and forests which are hardly mentioned 
by cotemporary writers. 

The Ain-t-Akbari—or Institutes of Akbar—compiled by his 
minister, Abul Fazl, lay down elaborate methods for the teach- 
ing of reading and writing. ‘* Every boy,’’ they say, ‘‘ ought 
to read books on morals, arithmetic, agriculture, mensuration, 
geometry, astronomy, physiognomy, household matters, the 
rules of government, medicine, logic and history, all of which 
may be gradually acquired.” Injunctions are also given as 
to the study of Sanskrit. But the incessant wars of Aurang- 
zeb’s later years and the numerous troubles of the eighteenth 
century were as injurious to learning as to every other form of 
progress. 

The Hindu caste system flourished in full vigour in Moghal 
times. The alliance between the Brahman and the Raja con- 
tinued throughout countless villages. The authority of each 
was deeply respected by the masses, in spite of Muslim governors 
and settlers. Hinduism remained intact, despite a certain 
leakage of converts to Islam. 

Sir Thomas Roe speaks of the “‘ want of Government ”’ in 
Jehangir’s empire. But European travellers generally testify 
to Indian hospitality and to the tolerant religious policy of 


4 


Tuopuo" cy ysang mip" Peony e WOIsSUC YW YM 


oor oot 00z 001 0s UPUIS ‘SI yeuaefny ‘6 
Saji ysi/3ug 4lmysey “Z] essowfy -g 

BSSIIO “OL = peqeyeliv ‘2 

yeseupewyy “Gi UPNO “9g 

4esuag “pl eidy ‘C 

ysepueyy et 419G “PY 

jesueq ‘Jl = s«UEMINW “S 

Jeylg ‘il B4OUe)] °S 

BMIEIN “Ol inqey ‘It 


syeqng sjeqyy 


‘GO9L Y¥! VICNI 


Akbar’s Subahs 


INDIA in 1605. 


| 


<i 

7 J 

Q : te. hand i 
Yar) 


: 10 
1. Kabul 10. Malwa 
| 2. Lahore 11. Bihar 
3. Multan 12. Bengal 
4. Delhi 13 Khandesh - 
5. Agra 14. Berar 
6. Oudh 15. Ahmadnagar 
7. Allahabad i6. Orissa 
5 | 8. Ajmere 17. Kashmir English Miles : 


j| | 9. Gujerat 18. Sindh 0 50 100 200 300 400 


W & A.A Johnston Timnted iidinburgh & London. 


THE MOGHAL EMPIRE AND THE PEOPLE 41 


Akbar and Jehangir. ‘‘In the Mogol’s dominions,’’ wrote 
Tom Coryat in October 1616, ‘‘ a Christian may speake much 
more treely than he can in any other Mahometan country.” 
There is other testimony to the same effect. 

If we compare the Moghal Empire in its best days with 
countries in cotemporary Europe, if we take into account the 
great size of India, its previous history, its vast distances, its 
scanty communications, we must admire the vigour, capacity 
and organising ability of Babar and his immediate descendants. 
They bequeathed to posterity a great name, some very noble 
buildings and a system of administration which they inherited 
from earlier times, developed, and passed on to the British. 
But their rule was marked by frequent wars of succession which 
weakened its structure; and, in any case, the strength of that 
structure depended mainly on the character of a hereditary 
sovereign. If the Emperor were a puppet, or if there were 
any doubt as to who was Emperor, strife and confusion dis- 
tracted the realm. 


Vv 
EUROPEAN MARITIME ENTERPRISE 


Tue rulers of Indian kingdoms and empires had been so far 
accustomed to look for invasion solely from the land. But 
when on May 20, 1498, the Portuguese Vasco da Gama anchored 
his three ships off a small village eight miles north of the 
western port of Calicut, he began a process of turning India’s 
flank from Europe by way of the sea which was destined pro- 
foundly to alter the whole course of her history. 

The Portuguese had in 1885 won their own country from 
_ the Moors after a hard struggle of two and a half centuries. 
For the next hundred years their history was one of strenuous 
efforts to discover the sea-route to the East. These efforts 
received an added stimulus when the Turks conquered Con- 
stantinople in A.D. 1453. Existing trade-routes between 
Kurope and the East had then fallen into Muslim hands. The 
great European markets were crying out for spices and pepper, 
for in Northern Europe animals, under the prevailing system 
of agriculture, could be killed for meat only in the summer 
and autumn, and provision for the rest of the year was made 
by preserving the meat killed in these particular seasons. 
Preservation was largely by ‘‘ powdering,’ which process 


42 BEFORE PLASSEY 


involved the use of a quantity of mixed spices. A necessary 
demand was largely increased by the taste of consumers. 
Meat, poultry, game, fish, fruit and even bread were flavoured 
to an excessive extent. In England there was a guild of 
pepperers even in the reign of Henry II; and in 1345 mem- 
bership thereof was limited to ‘* pepperers and _ spicerers.”’ 
Spices from the Indian seas originally reached England by 
way of Egypt and Venice or Genoa. But to return to Portugal. 

The original director of the Portuguese expeditions which 
laboriously felt their way down the African coast, with intent 
to discover a new way to India, was Prince Henry the Navi- 
gator, grandson of our own John of Gaunt. He wished to 
free the trade of the East from Muslim control and to in- 
augurate a new crusade against the Infidels from whom Portugal | 
had suffered so much. He devoted his life to this task and 
‘“never gave over his endeavours of discovering till he dis- 
covered the celestial Jerusalem which happened the 13th of 
November 1463, three and forty years after Madeira had first 
been descried.”?! His spirit continued to inspire the bold 
mariners who pursued the quest, until in 1487 the Cape of 
Good Hope was rounded by Bartholomew Diaz. 

Ten years later Vasco da Gama, with three ships, of a burden 
from 60 to 150 tons, and 160 men, sailed in pomp from Lisbon, 
and, after a voyage of eleven months, on May 20, 1498, cast 
anchor off Calicut. He set himself to displace the ‘‘ Moors,” 
as he called the Arab carriers of the Indian seas. He was 
well received by the Hindu ruler of Calicut; but after some 
ineffective bargaining and a quarrel, started on his return 
journey on August 29, 1498. He finally reached home in 
August 1499, with only fifty-five survivors of the expedition 
and two ships. Arab merchants still monopolised Indian 
traffic, bearing it through the Red Sea and Persian Gulf to the 
markets of Egypt, Arabia and Persia. From the dawn of 
history they had done this; and now the fruits of their enter- 
prise were garnered by the conquering Turk. 

In a.p. 1500 a larger fleet was despatched from Portugal 
under Pedro Alvarez Cabral, who established a factory at 
Calicut and entered into relations with neighbouring Hindu 
rulers, but made war against Muslims and against the Arab 
Mapilla or Moplah merchants of Malabar. Next the King of 
Portugal, fortified by Papal Bulls, appointed a Viceroy; and 
the second Viceroy, Affonso de Albuquerque (1509-1515), 
decided to establish a Portuguese maritime empire, both by 


1 Purchas His Pilgrimes. 


EUROPEAN MARITIME ENTERPRISE 43 


colonisation and by conquest, which would give to Portugal 
command of sea-borne traffic with the East. Fortresses must 
be secured at strategical points which would shelter soldiers 
and protect ships while refitting. Factories (trading-settle- 
ments) with small forts were necessary at other places. 
Colonies were required, in order that by marriages with the 
women of the country wastage of life might be repaired. 

In 1510 Albuquerque, bent on these designs, effectively 
occupied the island of Goa, then the principal harbour of 
the Bijapur Kingdom. He governed it through his country- 
men, but enrolled sepoys (Indian soldiers) commanded by 
Indian officers. He abolished sati (self-immolation of 
widows), then a common Hindu practice, on Portuguese terri- 
tory. In 1511 he captured Malacca, where he built and garri- 
soned a fortress which remained Portuguese until, after 130 
years, it passed into the hands of the Dutch. He explored the 
Spice Islands. In the Red Sea he occupied Socotra, but failed 
to take Aden. In the Persian Gulf he captured and fortified 
Ormuz, which was held by Portugal till 1622. Soon after this 
final achievement Albuquerque died. ‘‘ He has only gone,” 
said the lower orders in Goa, ‘* because God needed him to 
fight battles elsewhere.” Even the King of Portugal, who 
had ordered him to be superseded by a personal opponent, 
would not allow his body to be removed to Portugal, saying 
that as long as Albuquerque’s bones rested in Goa, ‘‘ India was 
safe.’? Afterwards when required to give them up, the Goanese 
refused until menaced with dire penalties by a Papal Bull. 

Albuquerque was passionate, pitiless and cruel, like many 
prominent men of his age, but easy of access to his Goanese 
subjects, and in cool moments anxious to do justice. ‘‘I am 
known all over India,”’ he told his King, *‘ as a man of my word ; 
if I send for a Muhammadan from anywhere, he comes and 
demands no security.”” He was a born ruler. “‘ Clear-headed, 
always accessible, he did his work himself; he might inadver- 
tently be unjust, but he never allowed subordinates to rob or 
oppress; he knew his own mind and never let his judgment 
be warped by fear or favour.” ? 

Other Viceroys succeeded Albuquerque. Portuguese lord- 
ship of the ocean was established from Mozambique to Malacca. 
From Malacca trade to the Far East was organised in Portu- 
guese interests. Commercial agencies were started at Macao 
in China, in Japan and in the principal islands of the Malay 
Archipelago. From the entrepots at Goa and Cochin on the 


1 Whiteway, Rise of the Portuguese Power. 


44, BEFORE PLASSEY 


west coast of India, vessels carrying textiles and merchandise 
went eastward and returned with spices and ‘* China goods.” 
Vessels that went westward bore always pepper, shipped by 
order of the State, and private merchandise. So frequently 
were ships overloaded that many were lost on the homeward 
voyage. In 1547 the sea-borne trade of Vijayanagar passed 
by treaty into Portuguese hands. In 1570 Goa was besieged 
by a large army of the confederate Sultans of the Deccan ; 
but after ten months the siege was raised. The displaced 
Arab traders could only wage an intermittent warfare which 
their adversaries stigmatised as piracy. The Goa Viceroys, 
confident in naval power, declared trade on certain sea-routes 
and in certain goods to be a State monopoly held for the 
benefit of their own sovereign. Outside these limits licences 
were necessary. Unlicensed ships would be prizes of war. 
Even Akbar in sending ships from Guzerat to the Red Sea 
obtained permits from the Portuguese. 

The question naturally arises, How was a position of so much 
power attained? It is true that the Portuguese were better 
armed than their Indian opponents, but the cannon of these 
days were dangerous to friends as well as to foes ; and bombard- 
ments were sometimes stopped as more injury was done to the 
assailant ships from recoil than to the enemy from balls. The 
real explanation of the Portuguese successes was that for long 
their soldiers and sailors were picked men inspired by a cour- 
ageous spirit of strenuous adventure. 

But the hardihood and enterprise which achieved so much 
were often marred by shocking cruelty; and after Albu- 
querque’s death, the Portuguese under a fanatical king embarked 
on an insane attempt to force natives of India to adopt Chris- 
tianity. In 1560 the Inquisition began its abominable work 
at Goa. It blasted and withered there as elsewhere. More- 
over, Albuquerque’s system of colonisation was a failure. The 
Portuguese half-castes were far inferior to their forbears. 
Finally, the absorption of Portugal in Spain in 1580 dragged 
the former country into the quarrels of the latter. Spain’s 
hands were full already, and the population and resources of 
her new dependency were insufficient to maintain a distant 
maritime empire which was speedily disputed by the Protes- 
tant Powers of Northern Europe. Assailed by Holland and 
England, the Portuguese power in India, which was entirely 
dependent upon predominance at sea and was largely upheld 
by a debased domiciled community, declined rapidly. 

Bernier, writing in the latter half of the seventeenth cen- 


EKUROPEAN MARITIME ENTERPRISE 45 


tury, contrasts in stinging terms the Portuguese of his day 
in India with those who in former times had been distinguished 
for *‘ courage, generosity, zeal for religion, immensity of wealth 
and the splendour of their exploits.”’ Gradually most of the 
Portuguese settlements fell into Dutch or English hands. At 
last the treaty of 1661, which gave Bombay to Charles II as 
part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, bound England 
to defend the few remaining Portuguese possessions against 
the Dutch. 

The latter, in the course of their struggle with Spain, had 
decided to appropriate the great Indian spice-trade. Their 
main objective was Malacca and the islands of the Malay 
Archipelago. In the closing years of the sixteenth century 
associations of Dutch merchants sent expeditions to Java; 
and in 1602 these associations united in a Dutch East India 
Company which established Batavia in Java as the capital of 
the Dutch East Indies and gradually asserted Dutch supremacy 
in the Spice Islands. In 1640 the English East India Com- 
pany was informed by one of its Presidents in India that the 
Portuguese were in a ‘“‘ most miserable predicament, Malacca 
and Ceylon besieged; their galleons fired; their soldiers 
decayed; themselves disheartened; all precipitating them, 
except sudden and ample succours from Europe reinforce 
them, even to utter ruin, whilst the insolent Dutch domineer 
in all places, styling themselves already Kings of the Indian 
Seas.” 

Both Malacca and Ceylon fell to the Hollanders, but on 
the coasts of India their settlements were insignificant. The 
Spice Islands seemed to them the more profitable acquisition. 

Our own East India Company was formed under a charter 
granted by Queen Elizabeth on December 31, 1600, entitled 
‘‘ A privilege for fifteen years granted by Her Majesty to 
certain adventurers for the discovery of the trade for the East 
Indies.”” For twenty years English merchants had been striv- 
ing to secure a share in the Indian trade, and in 1581 a syndi- 
cate of London merchants had been granted a monopoly of 
English commerce with Turkey. Funds had been found for 
sending certain merchants to explore the possibilities of trade 
with India through Asia Minor and Persia. Two of these mer- 
chants, John Newbery and Ralph Fitch, set off furnished with 
letters of introduction from Queen Elizabeth to the Emperor 
Akbar (described therein as King of Cambay). It is not clear 
if the letters were actually presented. Newbery died on his 
return journey; but Fitch came back to England, after an 


46 BEFORE PLASSEY 


absence of eight years, and told his story. A Levant Company 
was formed for the promotion of trade by land with India 
through the Turkish dominions, but no substantial attempt 
was made to act on its charter. With the defeat of the Spanish 
Armada it had become evident that the future of trade with 
India lay on the all-round water route. 

The East India Company’s first charter was secured by Sir 
Thomas Smythe, a great London merchant and member of the 
former Levant Company, who, with other merchants, includ- 
ing the Lord Mayor, sent round the beadle with the Company’s 
subscription-book. After some trouble, capital amounting to 
£68,323 was raised, and a fleet of four ships was fitted out which 
under Captain James Lancaster visited Achin in Sumatra and 
established a factory at Bantam in Java. It then returned 
to England. 

A second fleet visited the Spice Islands, but experienced 
much opposition from the Dutch. A third fleet detached a 
ship to Surat, then the principal Moghal port on the west 
coast. It was desired to establish a factory there by treaty 
with the Emperor. William Hawkins, a nephew of the great 
Sir John, landed at Surat and went up-country as the Com- 
pany’s envoy, presenting himself on April 16, 1609, before the 
Emperor Jehangir at Agra, with whom he was able to converse 
in Turki. But he was bitterly opposed by Portuguese Jesuits 
at the Imperial court and accomplished nothing. He discovered, 
moreover, that English enterprise was hopeless as long as the 
Portuguese fleet could blockade the coast at will. The situa- 
tion altered when Captain Thomas Best with his ships the 
Dragon and the Hostander, on December 28, 1612, signally 
defeated a Portuguese squadron. A factory (trading-settle- 
ment) was established at Surat by permission of Jehangir with 
subordinate agencies inland. More English naval triumphs 
followed; and with the aid of a Persian land-force Ormuz in 
the Persian Gulf was captured in 1622. For some time the 
English continued hostilities with the Portuguese; and peace 
was not concluded till 1633. Long before then the Surat 
factory and its subordinate agencies under a President in 
Council had become the Company’s presidency on the west 
coast of India. 

With the sanction of King James I, the Company had 
despatched Sir Thomas Roe, an accomplished courtier and 
traveller, a friend of Henry Prince of Wales and Elizabeth of 
Bohemia, as official representative of the English nation, to the 
court of the Emperor Jehangir, in order to negotiate a permanent 


EUROPEAN MARITIME ENTERPRISE AT 


treaty authorising the opening of factories on the coast and 
at inland places of commercial importance. Roe arrived at 
Agra in November 1615; and after a long stay left India in 
February 1619, arriving in England in September of the same 
year. He obtained two firmans or imperial orders, one from 
Jehangir and the other from Prince Khurram, afterwards the 
Emperor Shah Jehan, directing that the English should be 
well treated and allowed free trade. Roe advocated a forward 
policy on the sea, but was strongly against land-fortification 
or the maintenance of a military force, holding that ‘“‘a war 
and traffic are incompatible.’ He saw no serious obstacles 
to English progress. The Portuguese were on the downward 
path; and the justice of the Moghals was ** generally good to 
strangers’’; the authorities were ‘‘ not rigorous except in 
searching for things to please.” Roe served his employers 
well. From his time Englishmen were treated with increasing 
respect and gradually ousted the Portuguese from any posi- 
tion of influence at the Imperial court. 

In 1609 the East India Company had been by a second 
charter re-endowed with the Indian trade in perpetuity, ‘* un- 
less such an arrangement should prove unprofitable to the 
realm.’’ In 1635 Charles I infringed this monopoly by grant- 
ing a licence for trade in the East to Endymion Porter, who 
was financed by a Sir William Courteen or Courten, a great 
London merchant. Courten’s Association established a settle- 
ment at Assada in Madagascar, and were called the Assada 
Merchants. Business competition between this Association 
and the East India Company was terminated by their union 
in 1649; and in 1657 Cromwell granted the united Company 
a new charter under which they raised their first permanent 
joint-stock. They were allowed ‘‘to fortify and plant” in 
any of their settlements and to transport colonists thither. 
Ninety-one new factors and merchants were despatched to the 
East. By an important charter granted by Charles II in 
1661, the Company received special privileges. The joint- 
stock principle was recognised by giving each member one 
vote for every £500 subscribed by him to the Company’s stock. 
The Company was to have ‘‘ power and command ”’ over their 
fortresses and were allowed to appoint ‘“‘ governors”? and 
councillors. The governor and council of each principal fac- 
tory were empowered to administer justice to all their sub- 
ordinates. The Company was to be able to send ships-of-war, 
men or ammunition, for the security and defence of their 
fortresses, to seize unlicensed intruders, ‘‘ interlopers,”’ and 


48 BEFORE PLASSEY 


send them to England, to punish persons in their employment 
for offences, and in the event of appeal, to send them to Eng- 
land as prisoners to receive punishment there. It was under- 
stood that justice would be administered in their settlements 
according to English law. In the same year Charles II received 
Bombay from Portugal as part of the Infanta Catherine’s 
dowry and engaged to defend the Portuguese from the Dutch. 

In 1611 Captain Hippon had founded a factory for the 
Company at Masulipatam on the east or Coromandel coast. 
In 1640 Francis Day, a member of the Masulipatam factory 
council, had procured from a petty Hindu Raja a narrow 
strip of land about 230 miles to the south of Masulipatam with 
permission to build a fortified factory thereon. Round the 
guns of this factory when built grew up the ‘‘ White”’ and 
‘* Black’? towns of Madras, which was declared a Presidency 
in 1658. Striking northward too from Masulipatam, the 
Company’s servants had tried settlements at Hariharpur in 
the Mahanadi Delta and at Balasore in Orissa. Neither flour- 
ished ; but Gabriel Boughton, surgeon of one of the Company’s 
ships, who lived for some time as physician at the court of 
the Subadar of Bengal, had procured permission for the estab- 
lishment of an English factory at Hughli, where the Dutch 
and Portuguese were already settled. 

Since the treaty of 1633 with the Portuguese the Company’s 
servants on the western coast had built a large number of 
coasting vessels in local shipyards and were driving a lucrative 
trade along the shores of Western India. But Surat had been 
found an inadequate centre ; it did not possess a good harbour, 
and by land was exposed to Maratha attack. It was largely 
at the mercy of the Moghal Governor of the town, who levied 
extortionate dues. Eventually the Company’s head-quarters 
on the west coast were moved to Bombay, which was 
granted to them by a charter of 1668, to be held of the Crown 
‘‘in free and common soccage’’ for the annual rent or £10. 
The Company could appoint a governor whose powers would 
be of the widest. They could employ such king’s officers and 
soldiers as might be on the island of Bombay, and willing to 
serve them. As the next chapter shows, it was becoming 
increasingly manifest that the continued prosperity of the 
Company’s business was conditional on the ability of its ser- 
vants to defend themselves. 

By a charter of 1683 the Company were permitted to make 
peace and war with non-Christian nations. By a charter of 
1686, through Sir Josiah Child, their most prominent and 


EKUROPEAN MARITIME ENTERPRISE 49 


powerful member, they obtained another charter allowing 
them to coin any species of money usually coined by native 
princes, strengthening their hands against “‘ interlopers,” and, 
in Child’s words, forming them “‘ into a sovereign State.’’ But 
with the Revolution of 1688 their prospects in England clouded. 

Their prosperity had greatly increased since the Restora- 
tion. As Macaulay says, the taste for the spices, the tissues 
and the jewels of the East had become “‘ stronger day by day.’’ } 
Tea from China had become a great article of import; and 
saltpetre was required for gunpowder. The value of the 
Company’s stock had greatly risen. Their monopoly was re- 
garded with envy; and it was only after a keen contest and 
profuse bribery that Child managed to obtain further charters 
in 1693 and 1694. But his opponents raised the constitutional 
question whether the Crown could grant a monopoly of trade 
without the consent of Parliament; and although the Privy 
Council decided in favour of the Crown, the decision was 
stultified by a resolution passed by the House of Commons on 
January 11, 1694, to the effect that ‘‘ all subjects of England 
have equal rights to trade to the East Indies unless prohibited 
by Act of Parliament.’ Thus it was that ‘‘the question 
whether the trading privileges of the East India Company 
should be continued was removed from the Council-chamber 
to Parliament, and the period of control by Act of Parliament 
over the affairs of the Company began.” ? 

In 1698, under Act of Parliament a rival association of 
‘‘interlopers’’ and other merchants was chartered as a 
joint-stock company ‘trading to the East Indies’; but 
the old Company contributed £315,000 toward its authorised 
capital of £2,000,000. Bitter rivalry, however, ensued in 
England and India with ruinous results to both sides. In 1702 
a preliminary instrument of union was signed whereby an 
amalgamation commenced which was completed in 1708. 
From that year onward there was but one East India Com- 
pany, represented by a Court of Directors and a general Court 
of Proprietors. For the success of trade with India it was 
necessary to have one association only, powerful enough to 
treat with Indian princes, to enforce discipline among its ser- 
vants and to resist European rivals and the pirates who infested 
the Indian Ocean. No Western nation could afford to support 
more than one such body. 


1 History of England, vol. iv, p. 132. 
2 Ibert, Government of India, p. 27. 


IN—4 


50 BEFORE PLASSEY 


VI 
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MOGHAL EMPIRE 


Sir Tuomas Roe had advised the East India Company of 
his day that it was “‘ an error”’ to affect garrisons and land- 
wars in India! A military-commercial policy had been “ the 
beggaring of the Portugal’’ and the mistake of the Dutch. 
But Roe wrote in an age when organised government prevailed 
generally both in the Moghal Empire and in the Muslim Sul- 
tanates of the Deccan. Half a century later Sivaji and his 
Marathas were repulsed with difficulty from the gates of the 
English factory at Surat; and in 1677 they passed close to 
Madras. Aurangzeb was exhausting the energies of his empire 
in crushing the Kings of Bijapur and Golkonda, who would 
otherwise have been his natural allies against the insurgent 
Maratha power. Ordered authority was manifestly weaken- 
ing, and however averse the English settlers might be from 
taking to arms, necessity was gradually compelling them to 
consider whether salvation lay in any other course. From 
Bombay Gerald Aungier, Governor from 1669 to 1677, reported 
to the Directors that the “justice and respect wherewith 
strangers in general, and especially those of our nation, were 
wont to be treated, is quite laid aside ; the name of the honour- 
able Company and the English nation, through our long patient 
suffering of wrong, is become slighted ; our complaints, remon- 
strances, paper protests, and threatenings are laughed at... . 
In violent distempers violent cures only are successful—the 
times now require you to manage your general commerce with 
your swords in your hands.” 

From Hughli in Bengal, the Company’s agent, a sturdy 
Englishman named Job Charnock, reported in 1678: ‘‘ The 
whole kingdom is lying in a very miserable feeble condition, 
the great ones plundering and robbing the inferior.” 

The Company, acting on recent charters, decided to assert 
full jurisdiction within the boundaries of their settlements, 
to fortify freely, coin money and collect customs. They began 
to enlist a native militia in order to protect their property and 
themselves. They instructed their President and Council at 
Bombay to “establish such a politie of civil and military 
power and such a large revenue as may be the foundation of a 
large well-grounded sure English dominion in India for all 
time to come.” 


DISSOLUTION OF THE MOGHAL EMPIRE 51 


Factories on the west coast were subordinate to Sir John 
Child, the Governor of Bombay, and to his council of senior 
merchants. 

Factories on the east side of India were subordinate to the 
President and Council at Madras or Fort St. George. We 
have already traced the Company’s merchants to Hughli, a 
port in the estuary of the Ganges. From there they had 
worked upstream and founded stations at Kasimbazar, near 
Murshidabad, the capital of the Nawab-Nazim (Muslim Viceroy), 
and farther north at the ancient town of Patna, famous for 
trade in saltpetre, opium and raw silk. Annoyed by the 
exactions of the Viceroy of Bengal and by generally disquiet- 
ing news, advised to secure a fortress in Bengal, the Directors, 
with the consent of James II, despatched an expedition to 
capture Chittagong, then, as now, a harbour of considerable 
importance, holding that ‘‘ we have no remedy left, but either 
to desert our trade, or to draw the sword His Majesty hath 
entrusted us with, to vindicate the rights and honour of the 
English nation in India.”” Three men-of-war and three frigates 
were despatched from England carrying six companies of 
English soldiers under a Captain Nicholson. These were to 
be joined by the Company’s other vessels off Bengal and 
Madras. The Subadar of Bengal was to be asked either to 
pay £620,000 damages ‘“‘ for this great fleet and force”’ as well 
as for obstruction to the Company’s trade, or to give up Chit- 
tagong and allow the Company’s settlements to proceed ‘‘ upon 
the old privileges.” The expedition, however, was a failure. 
Job Charnock and the English settlers were driven from Hughli 
to Satanati, farther down the Ganges, and after making a 
persistent attempt to settle there, were compelled to withdraw 
for fifteen months to Madras. By order of the Emperor, the 
factories of the Company were everywhere attacked and Bom- 
bay itself was besieged. The situation was only saved by 
English operations at sea. From Bombay Child directed free 
capture of Muslim shipping, thus arresting Muslim commerce 
and pilgrimage to Mecca. The Emperor reconsidered the 
position and conceded peace. Then with his fellow-exiles 
from Bengal, Job Charnock sailed back from Madras to the 
estuary of the Ganges and to Satanati. 

The founders of the future capital of India disembarked 
. there on August 20, 1690, and saw ‘“‘ nothing left for their 
accommodation’’ but a few huts on the rising ground which, 
emerging from swamp and jungle, ran along the east bank 
of a reach of the great river about seventy miles from the 


52 BEFORE PLASSEY 


sea. The rain was falling day and night, wrote Charnock, 
and at first they were forced to betake themselves to their 
boats, ‘‘ which at this season of the year is unhealthy.’ So 
impeded was the growth of the settlement by disease and 
other obstacles that only the courageous resolution of Char- 
nock prevented its abandonment. His purpose was to 
obtain ‘‘ four or five adjacent townes’’ and thereby improve 
the settlement ‘‘ to a considerable strength,” for, as he had 
written when he halted on the spot before withdrawing to 
Madras, ‘‘ when once we come to be settled thoroughly, the 
country people will flock to us to live under our Government, 
the nature of which they are well acquainted with, and soe 
a vast disparity between the lenity of ours and the tyranny 
of their own, of the which we have a pregnant instance in their 
present flocking to us in such abundance as they dayly do.” 
In 1693 the Company mourned the loss of the brave and faith- 
ful Charnock, ‘‘ qui postquam in solo non suo peregrinatus 
esset diu, revertus est domum suae aeternitatis.”?!1 But his 
settlement lived on and more than justified all his hopes. 
Hindus and Armenians resorted to it; by degrees a fort was 
built which was named Fort William in honour of William III ; 
and, spreading along the river-bank, the settlement absorbed 
the neighbouring villages of Kalikata and Gobindapur. It is 
probable that the first large warehouses were built in Kalikata, 
which therefore gave its name to the whole. In December 
1699 the Company declared their possessions in Bengal a 
Presidency, and appointed Sir Charles Eyre, their agent, to be 
President and Governor of Fort William. The fort occupied 
a strong defensive position, for although seventy miles up the 
river, it was accessible at high tide to heavily armed ships. 

At the opening of the eighteenth century there were the 
three English presidency settlements of Madras, Bombay and 
Calcutta with dependent factories; there were Portuguese 
settlers still on the west coast, of which Goa was chief; there 
were Dutch settlements at Cochin far down on the west coast, 
and at a few other unimportant places; there were Danish 
settlements at Tranquebar on the south-east coast and at 
Serampur close to Calcutta; there were French settlements 
at Pondicherry on the south-east coast, eighty-five miles below 
Madras, at Chandarnagar in Bengal and at Surat, Calicut, 
Balasore, Dacca, Patna, Kasimbazar. 

A French East India Company had been in 1667 organised 
by Colbert, the great financial minister of Louis XIV. This 


1 Epitaph on Charnock’s tombstone. 


DISSOLUTION OF THE MOGHAL EMPIRE 53 


Company fitted out a squadron which in 1672 occupied the 
harbour of Trincomalee in Ceylon and appropriated St. Thomé 
near Madras. But both ports were soon taken by the Dutch, 
with whom the French were fighting in Europe. In 1676 
Francois Martin acquired the site of Pondicherry on the sea- 
coast from a deputy of the Sultan of Bijapur, and opening a 
trade in piece-goods with the interior, built a town which in 
1698 was captured by the Dutch. The latter occupied Pondi- 
cherry for four years, fortified it strongly, and restored it under 
the terms of the Treaty of Ryswick. About 1673 a small 
body of Frenchmen settled at Chandarnagar on the bank of 
the Hughli, twenty-two miles from Calcutta. In 1688 Chan- 
darnagar was formally granted to them by the Emperor 
Aurangzeb. In 1701 Martin was appointed Director-General 
of all French settlements in India. Before he died in 1706 
the Pondicherry factory was the centre of a flourishing town. 
But the progress of French enterprise in India suffered seriously 
from the War of the Spanish Succession, which arrested French 
naval development. The Dutch too were weakened by long 
land-war in Europe and turned their eyes more and more from 
India towards Ceylon, Java and the Spice Islands. The Eng- 
lish Company’s commerce gained from these circumstances. 
We must now, however, turn our attention to the course of 
events in Upper India where the death of Aurangzeb had 
inaugurated the rapid decline and ruin of his house. 

It is certain that had succession to the imperial throne 
been regulated by well-understood primogeniture, much ruinous 
warfare would have been averted. But Bernier ascribes 
misrule and decay in the Asiatic empires of his time largely 
to the system of leaving princes to be educated in harems, 
ignorant of the duties of royalty, allowed to *‘ appear on the 
_ stage of life as if they came from another world,’ knowing 
nothing of the domestic and political condition of their king- 
doms. ‘‘ The reins of Government,’’ writes the Frenchman, 
‘‘ are often committed to some vizier, who, that he may reign 
lord absolute, with security and without contradiction, con- 
siders it an essential part of his plan to encourage his master 
in low pursuits and divert him from every avenue of know- 
ledge.”’ 

Wars of succession, however, and pernicious education were 
not the only reasons for the rapid downfall of the dynasty 
which had at first produced a succession of capable sovereigns 
and two great leaders of men. Other causes were the effect 
of the sun of India on the Central Asian stock from which 


54 BEFORE PLASSEY 


the soldiers of Babar had sprung; Hindu resentment of 
Aurangzeb’s fanatical persecution; the antagonism of the 
Rajputs and the Sikhs; and last, but not least, the victorious 
uprising of the Marathas. So formidable a combination of 
adverse circumstances would have severely taxed the genius 
of Akbar himself. It completely overwhelmed the unfortunate 
princes who followed Aurangzeb. First came two wars of 
succession following on the deaths of that monarch and his 
son Bahadur Shah I. After the latter came various puppets 
who were murdered or dethroned ; and next, in 1719, Muhammad 
Shah, who survived till 1748. ‘‘ Ages of ordinary decay ”’ 
were crowded into his reign. Originally he possessed a highly 
competent minister in Chin Kilich Khan or Asaf Jah, a member 
of a distinguished Turki family; but in 1728, disgusted with 
the folly and intrigue of the court, Asaf Jah retired to the 
Deccan, his particular province, and from 1724 ruled there in 
virtual independence, founding the dynasty of the Nizams of 
Haidarabad. In 1724 Saadat Khan the Persian, ancestor of 
the Kings of Oudh, became Nawab-Wazir of that province, 
which he practically appropriated. Later on the Subadar of 
Bengal, Bihar and Orissa ceased to pay tribute to Delhi. 
Against such defections Muhammad Shah was powerless. 

As the imperial power dwindled, the dominion of the Mara- 
thas increased. Sambhaji indeed was dead. His brother Raja 
Ram was dead, Then Raja Ram’s widow, Tara Bai, a remarkable 
woman, became Regent, and her predatory subjects gave the 
imperial territories no rest. Sambhaji’s son Shahu had been taken 
prisoner by Aurangzeb’s soldiers with his father ; but was released 
after the Emperor’s death and returned to Maharashtra, ener- 
vated by long sojourning at Delhi. He established his claim 
to sovereignty with the assistance of Balaji Vishvanath, a 
Konkanasth Brahman, whom he appointed prime minister 
(Peishwa). Balaji was a far abler man than his master, and 
visiting Delhi in 1720, negotiated arrangements whereby 
Shahu received three imperial grants for the chaut, sardesh- 
mukhi and swaraj, which he claimed as pertaining to his throne. 
The chaut and sardeshmukhi were to be levied on the six 
subas of the Deccan. The swaraj was to include sixteen dis- 
tricts of Maharashtra proper. Attached to the grant of chaut 
was the condition that the Raja should maintain 15,000 horse 
for the purpose of assisting the Emperor’s deputy governors in 
maintaining order in the country. But this stipulation was 
a dead letter. In 1720 Balaji Vishvanath, exhausted by his 
labours at Delhi and general overwork, died, and was succeeded 


DISSOLUTION OF THE MOGHAL EMPIRE 55 


as Peishwa by his son Baji Rao I, an able soldier and states- 
man who impressed on Raja Shahu the magnitude of the 
opportunity, the decrepitude of the Imperial Court. Now was 
the time to expel strangers from the land of the Hindus and 
to win immortal fame. The Muslim kingdoms of the Deccan 
were gone. Only the withering tree of the Moghal Empire 
remained. ‘“* Strike at the trunk,” he said, ‘‘ and the branches 
will fall of themselves !”’ 

Maratha dominion spread through war under the leadership 
of Baji Rao, largely at the expense of Asaf Jah, better known 
as Nizam-ul-Mulk. Bassein was taken from the Portuguese. 
The ancestors of the ruling houses of Sindia, Holkar, Baroda, 
Berar, distinguished themselves in war and received fiefs in 
return for their services: In 1737 the Marathas appeared in 
the suburbs of Delhi, but returned forthwith, apprehending 
invasion of their own territory by Asaf Jah. In 17389 Delhi 
was attacked from another quarter by Nadir Shah the Persian. 

Akbar’s empire had included Afghanistan; but after his 
death, Kandahar was taken by Persia and successfully held 
against subsequent attack. In 1739 Nadir Shah, King of 
Persia, invaded and annexed the rest of Afghanistan. Going 
further, at the head of about 60,000 seasoned troops, Kurds, 
Georgians, Afghans, Turkomans, Persians, he advanced into 
India by way of Ghazni, Kabul and Lahore. At Kurnal, near 
Delhi, his army encountered enormous forces collected by the 
Emperor Muhammad Shah. The Persian disposed of this 
host in two hours, routing them utterly, slaying some 20,000 
and capturing immense booty. Delhi was occupied; but the 
inhabitants rose on hearing a false rumour of the Persian 
king’s death. They were punished by a nine-hours’ massacre, 
and their city was sacked and gutted. Afghanistan and 
all Moghal territory west of the Indus were formally ceded 
to the Persian, who departed with an enormous quantity of 
treasure. 

About the same time the Rohillas or hill-men, an Afghan 
tribe, invaded and appropriated a fertile territory on the north 
bank of the Ganges which became known as Rohilkhand. And 
in 1748, before the death of the unfortunate Muhammad Shah, 
India was again invaded, this time by Ahmad Shah, an Abdali 
or Durani Afghan who, after the assassination of Nadir Shah 
at Meshed, had been crowned king in Afghanistan. His force 
was small and was repulsed. Returning later, in the reign of 
the Emperor Ahmad Shah, he obtained cession of the Punjab, 
but failed to establish effective authority in that province. 


56 BEFORE PLASSEY 


In the middle of the eighteenth century the Moghal Emperor 
had become a ‘‘ king of shreds and patches,” as Warren Hast- 
ings once called him. In 1754 the wretched monarch of the 
day was blinded and deposed by his own minister. Next 
came an unfortunate emperor in whose reign Ahmad Shah 
Durani again invaded India, and this time captured, sacked 
and massacred at Delhi. As the hot weather came on, the 
Afghan returned to his mountains; but no sooner had he 
departed than Upper India was invaded by the Marathas. 

Baji Rao had died in 1740, leaving three sons, of whom the 
eldest, Balaji Rao, succeeded him as Peishwa. Balaji was as 
ambitious as his father and grandfather, but of inferior calibre. 
He induced Raja Shahu to appoint by deed the Peishwa to be 
ruler of the Maratha Empire ew officio. The Raja was to be a 
figure-head. Shahu died, and all his successors were puppets. 
But the Empire of the Peishwas developed into a confederacy 
of principalities under chiefs descended from notable soldiers 
and owning a loose fealty to their chief at Poona. When 
Balaji Rao despatched expeditions against the territories of 
the Moghal Emperor or the Nizam, he asked for co-operation 
from other members of this confederacy. In 1758 an expedi- 
tion under his brother Raghunath Rao, better known to history 
as Raghoba, occupied the Punjab, defeating the Afghan 
Governor of Sirhind and entering Lahore in triumph. Raghoba 
returned to Poona, leaving Maratha troops behind him in the 
Punjab and the jagirdar Mulhar Rao Holkar in Malwa. The 
audacity of the incursion had thoroughly alarmed all the 
Muhammadan princes in Upper India. Hindus from the south 
were turning the tables on their conquerors. But the Afghans 
redressed the balance. 

In 1759 Alamgir II the nominal emperor of the day was 
murdered. He was succeeded by his son Shah Alam, a fugi- 
tive in Bengal. The personality of each successive emperor 
was insignificant. All alike were tools in the hands of stronger 
men. In 1759 Ahmad Shah Durani reoccupied the Punjab. 
The Rohillas prepared to join him. He drove out the Maratha 
garrison with ease, and in two actions near Delhi routed the 
soldiers of Sindia and Holkar. But the Peishwa’s cousin and 
chief general, Sadasheo Bhao, had just obtained by force of 
arms a large cession of Asaf Jah’s territory, and persuaded 
the Peishwa to allow him to challenge the Durani to a 
decisive struggle. He organised a great army and a powerful 
train of artillery, calling all the confederate Maratha chiefs 
to the Peishwa’s standard and asking Suraj Mal, the Jat Raja 


DISSOLUTION OF THE MOGHAL EMPIRE 57 


of Bhartpur, to help him. Meantime Ahmad Shah Durani, 
after occupying Delhi, continued his march south-eastward and 
encamped on the Ganges, where he was joined by the Rohillas. 

In 1760 a great Maratha force under the nominal command 
of Viswas Rao, son of the Peishwa, aged seventeen, but really 
directed by Sadasheo Bhao, marched up to and occupied 
Delhi. The army included contingents from all the con- 
federate Maratha principalities. It was joined by the Jats, 
who subsequently quarrelled with the generalissimo and with- 
drew before the climax. The Marathas remained at Delhi till 
the rains were over and the ordinary campaigning season 
began. Then Sadasheo Bhao established an entrenched camp 
at Panipat, mounting his guns on a rampart and arranging for 
the cutting of the Afghan communications. But the com- 
munications, when cut, were speedily restored; and as the 
Maratha leader was inclined to rely on his artillery and stake 
his all on a pitched battle rather than to adopt the guerrilla 
tactics of his race, he soon found that his forces were be- 
leaguered and in danger of starvation. Endeavouring to 
negotiate, he was met with the stern reply that the enemy 
understood the business of war and would negotiate in his own 
fashion. 

At dawn on January 13, 1761, the Marathas left their tents 
and joined battle. At first they fought well and threw the 
right wing of the Afghan army into confusion, piercing the 
centre with crushing artillery fire. But the Durani was a 
brave and steadfast commander. He rallied fugitives, brought 
up all his reserves and sent a strong reinforcement to his centre 
with orders to charge desperately ‘‘ sword in hand in close 
order at full gallop.” The charge turned the fortunes of the 
day. The Marathas were utterly routed. They were pursued 
with the utmost fury for twenty miles in all directions. Many 
of their leaders were slain. Their total loss was estimated at 
200,000. Thousands of prisoners were killed whose heads were 
piled up in heaps before Afghan tents. Viswas Rao fell in the 
battle. The Afghan soldiers demanded that his body should 
be dried and stuffed to carry to Kabul; but, through the 
intercession of the Rohillas and of Shuja-ud-daula, Nawab 
Wazir of Oudh, who had served on the left of the Afghan line, 
it was given up to be burnt after Hindu fashion. Sadasheo 
Bhao had fled from the battle and is believed to have been 
killed in the pursuit. 

The news of the battle spread consternation throughout 
Maharashtra and dealt Balaji Raoa mortal blow. He died in the 


58 BEFORE PLASSEY 


same year, and with him departed the best days of the Peishwas. 
Never again did they hold the same commanding authority 
over the confederate Maratha States, although they retained 
their position for another sixty years. North-western India 
and the Doab, the rich territory which lies between the Ganges 
and the Jumna, lay at the feet of Ahmad Shah Durani. But 
a mutiny of his soldiers, who refused to stay longer in the un- 
congenial climate of Hindostan, compelled the Afghan king to 
return to his mountains. Shuja-ud-daula went his way to 
Oudh. Shah Alam was left to gather up the fragments of a 
great dominion. The last Muslim empire was vanishing fast. 
The land was a prize for the strongest. So far the Afghans 
had proved the strongest. But they had come merely to 


conquer, plunder, massacre and retire. Who could conquer, 
govern and protect ? 


VII 
THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH 


THE paralysis of imperial power which followed the death of 
Aurangzeb soon made itself felt in the peninsula, where the 
provinces which had taken the place of the vanished Muslim 
sultanates were frequently invaded by troops of Maratha 
horse. For protection they were dependent upon such armed 
force as the Subadar Asaf Jah, invested from Delhi with the 
title of Nizam-ul-Mulk (governor of the country), could muster 
with the aid of his heutenants. Nizam-ul-Mulk’s charge in- 
cluded the territories of various Muslim Nawabs, his deputies, 
and of Hindu Rajas who actually or professedly paid tribute. 
The Nawabs were nominally appointed by the Emperor, but 
really by the Nizam. The more powerful tended to establish 
dynasties. 

The principal Nawab was the Nawab of the Karnatik,! or, 
as he was commonly called, the Nawab of Arcot, his capital. 
The eastern or Haidarabad Karnatik is a rich lowland tract 
lying between the Rivers Kistna and Coleroon on the north 
and south, and the sea and the hills on the east and west. The 
first dynasty of the Nawabs of Arcot was founded by a fawjdar 
or military commandant, appointed in 1708 by the Subadar of 
the Deccan. 

Both Pondicherry and Madras lie on the coast of the Kar- 
natik; and in order to understand the events which were 


1 Conventionally, Carnatic, 


THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH 59 


now to arise from this circumstance, the position of the French 
Company at this time must be examined. 

This body had been incorporated with various other 
companies in a mammoth association called the ‘‘ Company 
of the Indies,’’ and when in 1720 the association collapsed, a 
‘Perpetual Company of the Indies”’ took its place. The 
Directors of this *‘ perpetual Company’’ were nominated by 
the Crown; and control thereof was vested in the King’s 
Commissaries. The shareholders were ‘“‘ rentiers’’ whose divi- 
dends were guaranteed by the State at a fixed rate. They 
practically represented a subordinate department of a despotic 
government and for years never met. In 1721, however, their 
servants definitely took possession of the Mauritius (Isle of 
France), having previously occupied the neighbouring Isle de 
Bourbon. They thus obtained a useful naval base in the Indian 
Ocean, and in 1725 acquired the port of Mahe on the Malabar 
Coast. Pondicherry developed into a fine fortified port upon 
an open roadstead, and Chandarnagar, under Joseph Francis 
Dupleix, became an entrepdt of considerable trade. Rivalry 
was keen, but for long pacific, between French and English. 
Relations altered after the outbreak of the War of the Austrian 
Succession in 1740, in which France and England at first merely 
aided the chief combatants. 

Martin, the founder of Pondicherry, had been careful to 
cultivate intimate relations with the neighbouring Indian 
Powers, and had even tendered his friendly offices for the 
settlement of disputes. His policy was carried on by his 
successors, especially by Dumas, Governor-General at Pondi- 
cherry, who had been rewarded with some territory and the 
title of Nawab by the Emperor at Delhi, for affording a sanc- 
tuary to refugees and to ladies of the family of the Nawab of 
Arcot during a Maratha invasion in 1740. 

As Dumas was about to return to Europe, he obtained leave 
to transfer his new dignity to his successor, Dupleix, a man of 
extraordinary courage and fertility of resource, determined to 
extend by every means possible the political power of his 
nation in India. Arriving at Pondicherry from Chandarnagar, 
which he had administered with remarkable success, Dupleix 
found the Karnatik devastated by the Marathas and the 
Nawab’s administration unsettled. MHostilities between the 
French and English settlements seemed imminent. Particu- 
larly anxious to impress Indian opinion, he returned to Chan- 
darnagar and was there installed as a Nawab of the Moghal 
Empire. Then definitely assuming office at Pondicherry in 


60 BEFORE PLASSEY 


1742, he set himself to prepare for a great effort. He was 
informed by a despatch from his Directors dated September 
1743 that, in view of the probability of all-round war with 
England, only four vessels could be sent to India, two of which 
would go to Pondicherry. He must reduce his expenses by at 
least one-half and spend no more money on the renovation of 
the fortifications of Pondicherry, which he had found in a 
crumbling condition. 

Dupleix did his best to economise, but not on fortifications, 
He devoted a large portion of his private fortune to securing 
Pondicherry by a solid rampart with a broad ditch on the side 
which faced the sea. He took care that the two ships which 
arrived from France were provided with cargoes and sent 
back with all despatch for arms and munitions. These measures 
came none too soon. In March 1744 France declared war on 
England. 

We must now retrace our steps and survey the history of 
the English Presidencies in the early decades of the eighteenth 
century. We will first turn to Bengal. 

Irritated at the exactions of the Nawab Nazim, the President 
and Council at Calcutta in 1715 despatched an embassy to 
Delhi, which, after much delay and in return for a successful 
cure of the Emperor Farrukh Siyar by its doctor William 
Hamilton, procured grants of certain villages near Calcutta 
and Madras as well as a right to trade freely in all provinces 
customs-free. The licence depreciated in value as the imperial 
authority weakened, but was useful. Bengal too remained 
comparatively orderly, as its early Viceroys were capable men 
and the Marathas were at first far off. The English settlements 
in this rich, fertile, well-watered province prospered and Eng- 
lish commerce increased. In 1785 Calcutta possessed a popu- 
lation of about 100,000. 

Bombay, however, embarrassed by proximity to the Mara- 
thas, advanced less speedily. Its commerce was harassed by 
the raids of a gang of pirates under Kanhoji Angria, originally 
commander of the Peishwa’s fleet, who had made Gheria his 
stronghold. Under pressure from dangerous neighbours, by 
1746 Bombay had developed a sea and land force of over 
2,600, including 750 Europeans, and was the strongest of the 
three Presidencies. In 1739, by a treaty with the Peishwa, 
the Bombay settlers were permitted to trade freely throughout 
his dominions. 

Madras was worried by predatory incursions of Maratha 
forces into the Deccan and Karnatik. Its relations with the 


THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH 61 


Nizam and the Nawab were friendly. Fort St. George was 
believed to be fairly strong in guns, and business prospered. 

At the head of each Presidency was a Governor-in-Council. 
The members of Council were expected not to sit as cyphers, 
but ‘“‘to have each his negative whenever they believed they 
had a just reason!’’ Majority of votes decided every ques- 
tion. The Governor and Council superintended the civil and 
military departments, regulated intercourse with the neigh- 
bouring Powers and conducted correspondence with London. 
Their consultations were entered by a secretary in a book main- 
tained for the purpose, “‘ together with all occurrences and 
observations after the manner of a diary.’’ A duplicate copy 
was afterwards sent home to the Directors. ‘‘In these old 
silent ‘ consultation books’ preserved at Bombay, Madras and 
Calcutta lies buried the history of the rise of British dominion 
in India.’’ 3 

Below the Governor-in-Council were the senior merchants, 
merchants, factors, writers and apprentices in regular grada- 
tion. The military forces were weak. When in 1746 the 
French attacked Madras, the principal officer among the garri- 
son was one Peter Eckman, an ignorant superannuated Swede, 
who had at first enlisted, and at that time bore the rank of a 
first lieutenant ; he was assisted by two other lieutenants and 
seven ensigns. Although the garrison had near 200 pieces of 
cannon, ‘‘ yet they wanted men that were capable of playing 
them; besides that the want of military stores was equal to 
the paucity of military men.” ? 

These Presidency settlements had ceased to be mere factories. 
They included towns with mixed populations of Hindus, Muham- 
madans and Kuropeans who traded under permission from 
the Company. They had become semi-colonies. 

The Directors in London, unlike the Directors of the French 
Company, were aware that they represented a national force 
as well as an independent and wealthy corporation. ‘* Now,” 
they said, ‘‘ we are established by a Parliamentary authority, 
we esteem it a duty incumbent upon us, to England and to 
our posterity, to propagate the future interest of our nation 
in India.”? They carefully watched their commercial interests, 
but also aimed at forwarding the prosperity of their settlements 
by methods which are thus described: ‘‘ We have always 
built on this as a fundamental maxim that security of pro- 


1 Sir George Forrest, Life of Lord Clive, vol. i, p. 20. 
2 J. H. Grose, A Voyage to the Hast Indies, 1772, quoted on p. 37; Forrest’s 
Life of Lord Clive, vol. i. 


62 BEFORE PLASSEY 


tection and freedom in liberty and property with a due adminis- 
tration of justice must of necessity people your territories, 
considering the country all about you is under a despotic 
government.’?1 Their instructions to their servants as to 
administration of the settlements cannot be bettered. ‘‘ Never 
do an act of arbitrary power to hurt anybody. Let your deter- 
mination be always just, not rigorous, but inclining to the just 
merciful side. Always try the cause, never the party. Don’t 
let passion over-cloud your reason. This will make people 
respect you, whereas one violent sentence or action will sully 
the reputation of ten good ones.’ ? 

We come now to the year 1744 and the beginning of the 
long struggle between France and England in India. Aware 
of her weakness at sea, France had proposed a neutralisation 
of the French and English settlements in India; but her 
proposal was rejected. In July 1745 an English naval squadron, 
under Commander Barnet, appeared off the Coromandel coast. 
Dupleix appealed to Anwar-ud-din, Nawab of Arcot, who 
promptly directed the Madras Government to prevent attack 
upon the French settlements. The Madras Government 
obeyed ; and the approach of the monsoon compelled Barnet 
to retire from the coast; but he returned in 1746, and dying 
at Fort St. David, a fortified port twelve miles from Pondi- 
cherry, was succeeded by a Captain Peyton, who, prohibited 
from land-hostilities, could do nothing but wait for the appear- 
ance of a French fleet. 

The fleet arrived in June 1746 under the command of Mahé 
La Bourdonnais, a veteran sailor who was Governor of the 
Isle of France. After an indecisive action and some futile 
manceuvring, Peyton and his squadron made off to Bengal 
because their sixty-gun ship had become so leaky as to be in 
danger of being sunk by the firing of herown cannon !* Madras 
was left to its fate, and was captured by La Bourdonnais with 
ease in September 1746 after an innocuous bombardment of 
a few days. Among the prisoners of war taken was a young 
writer named Robert Clive. In spite of the injunctions of 
Dupleix, who intended to eradicate the English settlements, 
La Bourdonnais engaged to restore Madras on payment of a 
ransom of £400,000, and thus quarrelled violently with Dupleix. 
The monsoon of 1746 arrived; and he returned to the Isle 
of France with shattered ships, but left at Pondicherry a strong 


1 Letter to Bengal in 1721, Roberts, Historical Geography, vol. i, p. 88 
2 Ibid., p. 87. 
8 Orme, vol. i, p. 67. 


THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH 63 


reinforcement of disciplined soldiers. Then Dupleix, repudiat- 
ing the recent engagement as concluded without his authority, 
seized Madras and all the English who were unable to make 
their escape to Fort St. David. But here he offended the 
Nawab, whose consent to his operations had been obtained 
by a bribe to be paid in two sums, one forthwith, and the other 
when Madras should fall.1_ Dupleix refused to pay the second 
sum; and the Nawab despatched an army of about 8,000 under 
his own son Mahfuz Khan to take Madras from the French. 
This army was routed with ease by a small French force, partly 
by reason of the inefficiency of its artillery, in an action which 
clearly demonstrated the superiority of European discipline 
and training. Then Dupleix, coming smoothly to terms with 
the Nawab, sent his troops to besiege Fort St. David, which 
was stoutly defended by the English Presidency Government 
under John Hinde, and received reinforcements from Bombay, 
Bengal and England. 

January 1748 saw the arrival of a veteran soldier, Major 
Stringer Lawrence, who reorganised the garrison, drilled and 
trained the sepoys thoroughly, and taught Clive, who had 
become a temporary ensign, the art of war. The French 
failed to take Fort St. David; and on July 29, 1748, Admiral 
Boscawen arrived from England with a strong squadron of 
ships and a commission as General and Commander-in-Chief. 
The siege of Fort St. David was raised by the French, and 
Pondicherry was beleaguered by Boscawen’s forces. Dupleix 
defended his capital gallantly; and Stringer Lawrence was 
taken prisoner in the course of the siege, which was raised 
before the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) restored Madras to 
the English in exchange for Louisburg in North America. 

So ended the first stage of hostilities between France and 
England in India. It coincided with war elsewhere between 
the two countries, and resulted in augmented prestige for the 
French but in a great shrinkage of their trade owing to their 
weakness at sea, whereas exports to England from India had 
increased in value. It was shown that in any future war the 
Company which could not secure its maritime communica- 
tions would lose its trade as well as any reliable hope of rein- 
forcements from Europe. No territorial advantage which its 
servants could procure was likely to be permanent in such 
circumstances. 

Dupleix, however, hardly realising the superior power of 
the English Navy, set himself to secure preponderating 


1 Forrest, Life of Clwe, vol. i, p. 46. 


64 BEFORE PLASSEY 


influence for France on land by taking sides in Indian succession 
quarrels and lending troops to the claimants of his choice. 
Karly in 1749 the English themselves had sent a force to sup- 
port a claimant to the throne of Tanjore and had thus obtained 
a useful fort. But Dupleix aimed at higher game than a 
fort; and a way was opened for his intrigue by the death 
of Nizam-ul-Mulk in 1748. A commanding influence was thus 
removed from Deccan affairs, and a succession was bitterly 
disputed. Nasir Jang, the elder son of the dead Nizam, 
was opposed by Muzaffar Jang, a grandson, who joined forces 
with Chanda Sahib, a claimant of the Nawabi of the Karnatik. 
The two latter were supported by 400 French and 2,000 sepoys, 
in French service. Anwar-ud-din, Nawab of the Karnatik, 
at once opposed these allies, but was killed in action. March- 
ing to Pondicherry, Muzaffar Jang proclaimed himself Subadar 
of the Deccan and invested Chanda Sahib with the rulership 
of the Karnatik. Muhammad Ali, the younger son of Anwar- 
ud-din, fled to Trichinopoly, of which he had previously been 
Governor, with a few troops. 

Then Nasir Jang, who had proclaimed himself successor 
to his father, advanced into the Karnatik to suppress his 
nephew Muzaffar Jang. He appointed Muhammad Ali Nawab, 
and accepted the assistance of an English contingent under 
Stringer Lawrence. At first he was completely successful, 
and Muzaffar Jang surrendered. But afterwards Nasir Jang 
was assassinated by contrivance of three of his own Pathan 
(Afghan) Nawabs ; and then Muzaffar Jang was declared Nizam 
by the troops and installed at Pondicherry. He bestowed 
profuse rewards on Dupleix, whom he proclaimed Nawab of 
all the country south of the Kistna. But, on setting out for 
his capital, accompanied by the notable French commander 
Bussy and a strong French contingent, Muzaffar Jang was 
killed in a skirmish. Bussy promptly filled his place by re- 
leasing Salabat Jang, the third son of Nizam-ul-Mulk, then a 
prisoner in the camp, and declaring him Viceroy of the Deccan. 
Together with his troops Bussy took up his residence at Hai- 
darabad, the capital of the Nizam’s territory, and later on he 
secured an assignment of the revenue of four rich districts 
on the east coast known as the ‘‘ Northern Circars,’”’1 as pro- 
vision for payment of his force. 

Thus French influence was supreme both with the Nizam 
and with Chanda Sahib, the de facto Nawab of Arcot. But 
at this crisis Muhammad Ali, son of the late Nawab, from 


1 Or sarkars, 


THE FRENCH AND THE ENGLISH 65 


Trichinopoly, applied to the Governor of Madras for help. 
Nor did he apply in vain. Stringer Lawrence indeed had gone 
home; and Governor Thomas Saunders was weak in men and 
resources. But the need was imperative, and a force was 
despatched to the relief of Trichinopoly. With that force 
went Clive as commissary in charge of supply and transport. 
Then, in an hour of supreme need, he found his true vocation 
and by conceiving and executing the daring project of seizing 
and holding Arcot, the capital of the Karnatik, he changed the 
fortunes of his countrymen. Under his leadership for fifty 
days, “‘ amidst fatigue, hunger, disease and imminent danger, 
320 men in all, commanded by four officers, held a vast fortress 
invested by 10,000 men before the little band had time to 
repair the dilapidated defences.’?! Arcot was held; Trichin- 
opoly was saved; Chanda Sahib was captured, and killed by 
some Maratha allies of Muhammad Ali. 

During more than three years of scrambling warfare, while, 
as France and England were at peace in Europe, neither French 
nor English struck directly at each other’s settlements in 
India, it was clearly shown that Dupleix could find no com- 
mander of the calibre of Clive or of Lawrence, who had re- 
turned from England. Nevertheless skirmishes went on until 
Dupleix asked for peace, producing impossible demands. His 
Directors, however, were weary of him and aghast at the state 
of their finances. In August 1754 he was superseded by 
M. Godeheu, through whose mediation peace was concluded 
in 1755. The Companies agreed to eschew territorial aggrand- 


- isement and local wars, to retain certain places and districts 


and to recognise Muhammad Ali as Nawab of the Karnatik. 

Outwardly neither Company had established a decisive 
superiority. Both had succeeded in augmenting their Euro- 
- pean strength on the spot. An English naval squadron was 
waiting on the coast; but the French were stronger in native 
cavalry, and according to the Governor of Madras were far 
more influential with ‘‘the country powers.’ Bussy was 
established at the Nizam’s capital with a disciplined force of 
5,000. 

But whereas the English East India Company was prosper- 
ing commercially, the French Company was on the verge of 
bankruptcy and was demanding large subsidies from their 
Government Treasury. On their side was a Navy numbering 
in 1755 only 67 ships-of-the-line and 31 frigates, against the 
English strength of 181 men-of-war and 81 frigates. The 


1 Forrest’s Clive, vol, i, p. 152. 
IN—5 


66 BEFORE PLASSEY 


French nation was not behind its Company. Nor did the 
French Government approve of the soaring ambitions of 
Dupleix. So he went; and the English candidate Muhammad 
Ali remained Nawab of the Karnatik. It is impossible to 
exaggerate the courage, perseverance and fertility of resource 
shown by Dupleix. His scheme for establishing a great French 
dominion in India was thwarted by the inherent difficulties 
of his position, by the resolution and genius of Clive and by 
the naval power of England. 


VIII 
PLASSEY 


WuiLE in the Karnatik the French and English were con- 
stantly fighting, in Bengal they were at peace. By the Ganges, 
above and near Calcutta, were the French settlement of 
Chandarnagar and the Dutch settlement of Chinsurah. In 
wealth and consequence Calcutta stood first. It commanded 
the great waterway which leads from the sea into the rich 
fertile plains of Bengal, and possessed the only safe harbourage 
for large ships which is anywhere available along the east coast 
of India. It was the resort of the principal Hindu and 
Armenian merchants of the province. 

Throughout the war in the Karnatik, Alavardi Khan was 
Nawab Nazim of Bengal. A native of Delhi, Persian by race, 
he had risen to power by overthrowing his predecessor, whose 
minister he had been. He had proved a capable ruler, and 
while levying subsidies from the European settlements he had 
allowed no fighting. For eight years his territories had been 
raided by Maratha cavalry, who burnt and destroyed far and 
wide, driving the villagers to large cities and European fac- 
tories for shelter ; but in 1751 relief was procured by the cession 
of part of Orissa to the plunderers and by a promise to pay 
annual blackmail. The war in the Karnatik and its outcome 
attracted the keen attention of Alavardi Khan, who being 
urged to seize Calcutta and thus avert an obvious danger, 
declined a contest with the English. In April 1756 he died 
and was succeeded by his nephew and adopted son Mirza 
Mahmud, better known by the alias Siraj-ud-daula (the Lamp 
of State). This man has been described by a Muslim historian 
as ‘‘ totally destitute of sense and penetration, and yet having 
a head so obscured by the smoke of ignorance, and so giddy 


PLASSEY 67 


and intoxicated with the fumes of youth and power and do- 
minion, that he knew no distinction between good and bad, 
nor betwixt vice and virtue.” ? 

Shortly before the death of Alavardi Khan, news arrived 
at the court of Murshidabad, then the capital of Bengal, of the 
capture of Gheria by English forces under Clive and Admiral 
Watson. This stronghold on the Malabar coast had become 
a nest of pirates, and when taken was made over to the Peishwa, 
who had sent a force to co-operate in the expedition. But the 
intelligence deepened the apprehensions excited by the tidings 
from the Karnatik, and largely explains Siraj-ud-daula’s subse- 
quent aggression. Just then the French and English settle- 
ments were warned from Europe of the imminence of war 
between their two countries. 

At Chandarnagar and Calcutta fortification was being pushed 
on when orders to stop work and destroy what had been done 
arrived from the Nawab. The French alleged that they had 
merely repaired damage wrought by lightning. The Governor 
at Calcutta, Mr. Drake, answered that, fearing lest in the 
coming war the neutrality of Bengal should be violated by the 
French, as that of the Karnatik had been violated in the last 
war, he was merely ‘‘ repairing the line of guns to the water- 
side.” This answer incensed the Nawab, who was already 
annoyed with the English in a minor connection. Promptly 
seizing the English factory at Kasimbazar, he marched on 
Calcutta, with an army of 50,000, and arrived there on 
June 16, 1756. The strength of the garrison in Fort William 
was only 264, of whom some were Indian-born Portuguese 
and Armenians. The defences were poor and had _ been 
impaired by neglect. The ammunition was largely useless. 
Of the commandant, Holwell, a member of the Presidency 
Council, afterwards wrote: ‘“‘ Touching his military capacity, 
I am a stranger. I can only say we were unhappy in his 
keeping it to himself if he had any, as neither I, nor, I believe, 
anyone else, was witness to any part of his conduct that spoke 
or bore the appearance of his being the commanding officer 
of the garrison.” 

In spite, however, of all these disadvantages, and of the open 
nature of the town, the President refused to surrender; but 
later, his nerve giving way, accompanied by the commandant 
and others, he slipped off to a ship and dropped down the 
river to Falta, a small village on the bank. The rest of the 
garrison, under Holwell, made a gallant defence but were com- 


1 Siyaru-l Mutakherin, vol. i, sec. 8. 


68 BEFORE PLASSEY 


pelled to capitulate on June 20. On the stifling night of that 
disastrous day, when the climate of Bengal was most oppres- 
sive, 146 were crammed into a guard-room about 20 feet long 
by 14 wide with two small grated windows, for hours of horror. 
Only 23 came out alive. The rest “‘mostly gentlemen and 
men of hopes,”’! perished through suffocation. 

The most definite evidence regarding the tragedy of ‘‘ the 
Black Hole’’ attaches the responsibility for it to the Nawab’s 
officers. Siraj-ud-daula himself had merely ordered that the 
captives should be secured. As soon as he heard of the result, 
he ordered their release from the cell. Orme says that on 
listening to Holwell’s representations, he ‘‘ seemed, -as much 
as a man naturally cruel could be, affected with what had 
passed.”’ He certainly called no one to account for it; and 
because he could extract no news of hidden treasure from 
Holwell, he detained him and three of his principal fellow- 
sufferers. They were subjected to further brutal treatment 
for which Orme blames the Nawab’s officers. The rest were 
liberated. 

The fugitives at Falta despatched a ship to Madras with 
tidings of their misfortunes. Within five days of its arrival 
with the news, a trading vessel was despatched with 280 soldiers 
under Major Kilpatrick. On October 16 an expedition fol- 
lowed under Clive, now a lieutenant-colonel, and Admiral 
Watson, who commanded the naval squadron which had been 
despatched from England before the conclusion of peace with 
France and had taken part in the capture of Gheria. Clive 
was in complete military and political control. As he wrote 
to England, he feared that progress would be retarded by 
‘‘the woods and swampiness of the country,’ but was re- 
solved to bring about a lasting settlement. Drake and a com- 
mittee of the Calcutta Presidency Council requested him to 
be guided by their orders. He declined, but agreed to consult 
them. Owing to the season and the strength of the currents, 
he only reached Falta in December, when many of the refugees 
had succumbed to fever and privation. The ships arrived 
off Fort William on January 2, 1757, when, after slight resist- 
ance, the enemy evacuated. Then Hughli was stormed. In 
February Siraj-ud-daula signed a treaty restoring the Com- 
pany’s possessions and promising compensation for damages. 
He solicited aid from Bussy at Haidarabad, and was further 
discomfited when, news arriving of war between France and 
England, Clive’s soldiers on March 23, 1757, captured Chan- 


1 Holwell’s Narrative. 


PLASSEY 69 


darnagar after a gallant resistance. Further negotiation fol- 
lowed, but both sides were playing for time. 

A conspiracy to overthrow Siraj-ud-daula was in progress 
among his own subjects, many of whom detested him and 
wished ‘‘ nothing better than to be rid of such a government.”’ ! 
Jaggat Seth, a prominent Hindu banker, who had been grossly 
insulted by his master, and Mir Jafir, a Muslim nobleman, 
who had married Ala Vardi Khan’s sister, approached the 
English. Amirchand, a wealthy Sikh banker, assisted in 
negotiating with the plotters. An agreement with Mir Jafir 
was in prospect when Amirchand stipulated for a commission 
of 5 per cent. on the Nawab’s hoarded treasure. Otherwise 
he would divulge the eonspiracy to Siraj-ud-daula. Under 
Clive’s direction, the threat was met by the preparation of two 
draft-agreements, one fictitious, containing an article promis- 
ing the money to Amirchand, the other genuine, omitting this 
stipulation. Watson refused to sign the former; and Clive 
ordered a counterfeit of his signature to be attached to it, and 
thus quieted Amirchand, who was only undeceived after 
Plassey. Years after Clive explained to a Parliamentary Com- 
mittee that he had acted from no interested motive, but ‘‘ with 
the design of disappointing the expectations of a rapacious 
man.’ This was undoubtedly true, but does not excuse his 
action; and no incident of his career has been so harmful 
to his memory.? 

Mir Jafir agreed to the real treaty and to a private covenant 
whereby he engaged to give a large donation of money to the 
Committee at Calcutta, of which Clive was President, as well 
as £500,000 to the army and navy. Such donations were in 
those days regarded as permissible. Then Clive brought the 
quarrel with the Nawab to a final arbitrament. The latter’s 
army, about 50,000 strong, composed of 35,000 infantry, 15,000 
cavalry, 53 guns mainly of large calibre, entrenched near the 
village of Plassey, by the Bhagirathi River south of Kasim- 
bazar, was on June 23, 1757, attacked by the English force of 
800 Europeans, 2,100 sepoys and 10 light field-pieces, without 
cavalry. Two days before, seeing good reason to suspect 
that Mir Jafir would fail him, Clive had held a council of war, 
which had decided by a majority vote, with his concurrence, 
to postpone further action “‘ till joined by some country power.” 
Kyre Coote, who commanded the third division of Clive’s force, 
had voted for immediate action. His journal records that 


1 Siyaru-l-Mutakherin, vol. i. sec. 8. 
* See Forrest’s Clive, vol, i, pp. 421-5, for a full discussion of the matter. 


70 BEFORE PLASSEY 


about an hour after the Council had broken up, the Colonel 
informed him that ‘‘ notwithstanding the resolution of the 
Council of War, he intended to attack.” 

On the 22nd the English moved towards the hostile entrench- 
ments and took possession of a grove and a hunting-lodge 
of the Nawab’s, which they occupied. Soon after dawn on 
the 23rd, a fine monsoon day, they discovered the enemy 
attempting to surround them and occupying adjacent emin- 
ences with their cannon. An artillery duel went on throughout 
the morning, in the course of which the Nawab lost four of 
his principal generals, At noon the rain came down in torrents 
for half an hour, and the Nawab’s guns ceased firing, but resumed 
when the shower ended. About two o’clock, Coote tells us, 
the enemy began to retire to their lines. Then Clive, drenched 
to the skin, retired to a neighbouring house to change his 
clothes. A detachment of his force under Major Kilpatrick 
advanced without orders. Clive returning to the line sent 
back Kilpatrick, but took command of the advance himself 
and ordered Coote’s division to support it. Little resistance 
was encountered, and by five o’clock Clive’s army was in 
possession of the Nawab’s camp. ‘‘ While we were pursuing 
the enemy,”’ says Coote, ‘‘ a large body of his horse was observed 
on our right; and upon our firing some shot at them, a mes- 
senger arrived with a letter to the Colonel from Mir Jafir, 
acquainting him that he—Mir Jafir—commanded that body, 
and requesting an interview with him that night or the next 
morning.’ } 

In truth, it was only when victory was assured that Mir 
Jafir declared himself, although his dubious attitude certainly 
contributed to the pusillanimous behaviour of the Nawab’s 
army. Siraj-ud-daula himself fled from the field when he 
learnt that the British were attacking his entrenchments, and 
that some of his troops were retiring. Clive’s loss was small 
and the enemy’s was not large. A small party of French had 
only retreated because ordered to do so by the Nawab; but 
the enemy generally had fought without spirit or enthusiasm. 
As Mr. Fortescue has written, ‘‘ The campaign of Plassey is 
less a study of military skill than of the iron will and unshaken 
nerve that could lead three thousand men against a host of 
unknown strength, and held them undaunted, a single slender 
line, within a ring of fifty thousand enemies.” ? 


1 Wylly, Life of Sir Hyre Coote, p. 42. See too Forrest’s Life of Clive, vol. i, 
pp. 452-9. 


* Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. ii. p. 340. 


PLASSEY 71 


After Plassey, Clive advanced to Murshidabad and there 
installed Mir Jafir as Nawab Nazim of Bengal, Bihar and 
Orissa, Siraj-ud-daula, deserted by courtiers and servants, 
fell into the hands of Mir Jafir’s son Miran and was put to 
death by Miran’s orders. The new Nawab made large 
presents to those to whom he owed his throne, and granted 
to the East India Company a perpetual lease of ‘the 
twenty-four Parganas,” a tract of 882 square miles lying 
principally to the south of the Calcutta settlement. These 
arrangements were confirmed from Delhi. An Imperial farman 
(decree) gave the Company perpetual heritable jurisdiction 
over the twenty-four Parganas, for which they were to pay 
£28,000 as quit-rent. A sanad, or deed of appointment, 
was conferred on Mir Jafir; and a patent bestowed upon Clive 
the mansab, or rank of commander of 6,000 horse. When re- 
quired to offer the customary gift, Clive did so, but objected 
that he had not received the jagir (fief) customarily attached 
to a mansab. He steadied and preserved the new administra- 
tion through the perils of domestic rebellion and a dangerous 
invasion of Bihar by an army under the Nawab of Allahabad 
and Prince Ali Gauhar, afterwards the Emperor Shah Alam, 
then a fugitive from Delhi. In gratitude Mir Jafir in 1759 
conferred on Clive, as the jagir attached to his mansab, the 
right to receive the quit-rent of the twenty-four Parganas, 
which was equivalent to the yearly pay of a Mansabdar of 
6,000 horse.1 Clive thus became the Company’s ground land- 
lord. 

Neither Mir Jafir nor his son addressed themselves to settling 
Bengal, distracted by successive Maratha raids, by wars, by 
the recent invasion of Bihar. The new Nawab’s position was 
not only inherently difficult, but was complicated by the heavy 
financial obligations which he had undertaken. He intrigued 
elsewhere ; and the resulting position is explained in a letter 
_ which on January 7, 1759, Clive addressed to the first William 
Pitt, stating that Mir Jafir and his son were unreliable; but 
that, in the event of their giving trouble, a force of 2,000 Euro- 
peans would enable the Company ‘‘to take the sovereignty 
upon themselves.” The sepoys, ‘‘ being much better treated 
and. paid by us than by the country powers, will readily enter 
our service.’ The people would acquiesce with joy, as under 
the existing despotic government they had no security for life 
or property. They had no attachment to particular princes. 
The Emperor would assent. The court at Delhi had in fact 

1 Forrest, Life of Clive, vol. ii, pp. 145-6, 


72 BEFORE PLASSEY 


already asked Clive to collect their share of the revenues 
of Bengal, which for some time had been “ very ill paid.” He 
would receive the title of Diwan (financial minister), and would 
thus rank next in dignity to the Nawab. He had declined 
the offer mainly because he saw no likelihood of the Company’s 
providing ‘‘ a sufficient force to support properly so consider- 
able an employ,’’ which would open the way to the governor- 
ship itself. The Company could hardly, without the nation’s 
assistance, maintain so wide a dominion. It was therefore 
worth considering whether the British Government should 
themselves take steps to secure such an acquisition. The main 
body of the Company’s army was employed in Southern India 
against the French, who were practically at the end of their 
resources. 

It is noteworthy that Clive wrote before Panipat and ignored 
the Afghans and Marathas, who, as we saw in Chapter VII, 
were then disputing for mastery in North-west India. It 
seems clear that he knew little of affairs far up-country. Pitt 
apparently sympathised with, but did not seriously entertain, 
these proposals. He considered that even if such a genius as 
Clive ‘* effected the affair,” it was not probable that he would 
be succeeded by others equal to the resultant situation. 

A charter of 1858 allowed the Company “ to cede, restore 
or dispose of any fortresses, districts or territories acquired by 
right of conquest from any of the Indian princes or governments 
‘‘ during the late troubles between the Company and the 
Nabob of Bengal, or which should be acquired by conquest in 
time coming,’’ subject to a proviso that the Company should 
not have power to cede, restore or dispose of any territory 
acquired from the subjects of any European Power without 
the special licence and approbation of the Crown. 

It is now time to turn to events in Southern India. In 
April 1758 a French expedition had landed at Pondicherry 
under the Count de Lally, son of an Irish refugee, a gallant 
soldier but hot-headed and impatient of advice. He quarrelled 
badly both with the Governor of Pondicherry and with Bussy, 
whom, much against the will of that distinguished soldier, he 
promptly summoned from Haidarabad. He began by bom- 
barding and capturing Fort St. David, but was seriously em- 
barrassed by the ignorance and incapacity of the Governor 
and Council at Pondicherry, who had taken no measures to 
supply him with stores and transport and could find him no 
funds. He spent his own money freely, but was compelled 
to wait till December 1758 before attacking Madras; and then 


PLASSEY 73 


his officers were in bad humour; his soldiers were crying out 
for pay; his sepoys were deserting freely ; his provisions were 
low. Already the ships which accompanied him had proved 
themselves no match for the English ships, and in February 
Madras was relieved from the sea. 

Clive, in disregard of the views of his council, profiting by 
Bussy’s absence from Haidarabad, had created a diversion by 
despatching a force under Colonel Forde, a brilliant com- 
mander, to the Northern Circars, reserving only 280 Euro- 
peans for the defence of Fort William. Forde was completely 
successful; and Nizam Salabat Jang, losing faith in the French, 
in May 1759 ceded by treaty the Northern Circars to the 
British, engaging to have nothing more to do with his former 
allies. From February 1759 Lally was on the defensive. In 
January 1760 he was severely defeated by Eyre Coote at Wande- 
wash, and later he was driven into Pondicherry and there 
compelled to surrender. 

Pondicherry was restored to France by the Peace of Paris 
in February 1763, but with demolished fortifications and under 
the conditions that on the Coromandel coast only a limited 
number of armed men might be maintained by France and that 
in Bengal Frenchmen would be allowed on commercial busi- 
ness only. French and English acknowledged Muhammad 
Ali as *‘ lawful Nabob of the Carnatic and Salabat Jang as 
lawful subah of the Deccan.” 

In this third Karnatik war between the French and English 
the commanding position of the latter in Bengal had prac- 
tically decided the issue. They possessed superior resources, 
a naval base in India, and a great military commander of high 
prestige and varied experience of Indian conditions. They 
were supported, moreover, by superior naval strength, a thriv- 
ing Company and a great War-minister. 

Against the Dutch at Chinsura, who had intrigued with Mir 
Jafir, Clive was equally successful. A fleet of seven ships 
from Batavia entered the Hughli in November 1759, seized 
- some British ships and landed some troops. Clive captured 
the fleet and defeated the troops, enforcing complete submission 
and payment of damages. 

In February 1760 he sailed for England. His career had 
been attended by some pecuniary transactions, the only excuse 
for which is that the doctrine of prize-money and presents 
was general in that age. We must acknowledge, too, that 
though naturally bold, open and direct, he had on one occa- 
sion resorted to a treacherous device which has left a stain 


74 BEFORE PLASSEY 


on his name. But his successes had been won by his dauntless 
resolution. The empire of which he laid the first foundation 
was not, on reflection, desired by his masters the Directors. 
If they could they would have evaded, and in fact for some 
time they did their best to evade, the heavy and indefinite 
responsibilities with which Siraj-ud-daula’s attack on Calcutta 
and all its consequences had invested them. 


PART II—FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


IX 
THE REGULATING ACT 


In the last chapter were traced the occurrences which led up 
to, and the consequences which followed on, one pregnant 
event. 

In this chapter are reviewed the further circumstances which 
produced assumption by the British Crown and Parliament of 
active authority over the territorial acquisitions of the East 
India Company. 

The period that intervened between Clive’s departure to 
England in February 1760 and his return to Calcutta on May 3, 
1765, was one of masterless confusion in Bengal. The nominal 
rulership of the province was three times transferred by 
majorities of the Presidency Council at Calcutta from one 
Nawab to another with large profits to the king-makers, who 
were merely a small oligarchy of merchants constantly quarrel- 


_ ling among themselves, without any direct responsibility for 


the civil administration, served by subordinates poorly paid 
yet recently possessed of wide opportunities for gain. Such 
opportunities were exploited not only by merchants and writers 
- claiming special privileges, but by other Europeans, by native 
agents, and by natives pretending to be agents of privileged 
persons. The plunder that resulted was exposed by Warren 
Hastings, then a recently appointed Member of Council, in a 
letter of bitter protest in which he strongly endeavoured to 
impress on his colleagues the harm that was being done to 
**the Nabob’s revenues, the quiet of the country and the 
honour of ournation.’’ But Vansittart, the Governor, was weak 
and could do nothing against a dominant majority actuated 
by a desire for gain. Military officers naturally despised such 
authority. Indiscipline in the army grew apace and culminated 
in mutiny of a Sepoy battalion suppressed by Hector Munro 
on the eve of the Battle of Buxar, and, later on, in another 
mutiny of English officers, which was quelled by Clive himself. 
75 


76 - FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


The miserable policy of the majority of the Calcutta Council 
was in 1763 interpreted by a headstrong agent at Patna in 
such a fashion as to provoke a violent collision with Mir Kasim, 
the Nawab Nazim of the day, which after some fighting re- 
sulted in a massacre of Europeans at that place and the flight 
of Mir Kasim into the territory of Shuja-ud-daula, Nawab 
Wazir of Oudh, who in April 1764 advanced on Bihar and Bengal 
with an army 30,000 strong, including a corps of about 5,000 
Afghan horse, who had served under Ahmad Shah Durani, 
and eight field-pieces manned by European renegades and 
deserters, as well as powerful batteries of heavy guns. The 
Nawab Wazir was attended by his titular suzerain Shah Alam, 
still a wanderer from Delhi. After prolonged negotiations the 
combination was routed with heavy loss, at Buxar on the 
border of Bihar, by Major Hector Munro at the head of 7,000 men, 
of whom 857 were Europeans, assisted by 20 field-pieces. The 
battle lasted from nine till noon. Munro lost 847 killed and 
wounded, but won a complete victory. Shah Alam at once 
came to terms; but Shuja-ud-daula retreated into his own 
country and only submitted when the Company’s troops had 
followed him there and, capturing Allahabad and other impor- 
tant places, had entered on the wide plains of the present 
United Provinces. 

The substitution of Mir Kasim for Mir Jafir, his father-in- 
law, had been attended not only by the cession of the Bengal 
districts of Burdwan, Midnapore and Chittagong to the Com- 
pany, but also by the payment of large presents of money 
to the Governor and some of his Council. Mir Kasim was 
now a fugitive; and Mir Jafir was reinstated, but died shortly 
afterwards, bequeathing a large sum of money to Clive. A 
deputation from the Presidency Council then visited Murshida- 
bad and concluded a treaty with Najum-ud-daula, a son of 
Mir Jafir, who, succeeding his father, surrendered the exercise 
of his authority to a Naib (Deputy) Nawab Nazim to be nomi- 
nated by the Company. The Deputy’s headquarters would 
be Murshidabad. Exemption from payment of inland cus- 
toms of the private trade carried on by the Company’s servants, 
a privilege indefensible in itself and conducive to the abuses 
which had caused the breach with Mir Kasim, was to con- 
tinue ; and sums of money were presented by the new Nawab 
to the members of the deputation. This scandalous. transac- 
tion had hardly been completed when Clive, now raised to an 
Irish peerage, returned to Calcutta on September 6, 1765. 

There were many among the Directors who resented both 


THE REGULATING ACT 77 


his proposals to Pitt and the jagir which he had accepted from 
Mir Jafir; but the Company’s shareholders insisted that 
Clive, and Clive alone, could save a rapidly deteriorating 
situation. 

He came as Governor and Commander-in-Chief with full 
discretion. He could nominate a select committee of four 
members of his Council who on emergency would take com- 
mand of the situation, regardless of their eleven colleagues. 
He found the public services, civil and military, anxious to 
become rich quickly, tainted with a corrupt and undisciplined 
spirit. His own Council was no better. It consisted of mer- 
chants, some of whom were chiefs of particular factories where 
they exercised absolute power. Vacancies in the higher ranks 
of civil servants left by early retirements and the massacre at 
Patna had been filled by young men, some of whom were trad- 
ing with borrowed money and sharing profits with Hindu or 
Armenian merchants to whom their names and privileges were 
valuable. 

The civil administration of the Nawab Nazim had practically 
broken down. The compact districts into which the province 
had originally been divided had long ago dissolved into par- 
ganas (sub-divisions) ruled in a confused fashion by powerful 
zamindars, who maintained unruly levies and were themselves 
kept in semi-submission by detachments of the Nawab’s 
irregular troops under the command of fawjdars.1 Disorder 
was rapidly increasing when Clive supplanted all these levies 
by three of the Company’s sepoy regiments and further sup- 
ported the civil administration of the Deputy Nawab Nazim 
by nine pargana battalions specially raised to meet the emer- 

ency. 
: He also carried out the orders of the Directors prohibiting 
acceptance of presents without special permission and _ for- 
bidding all inland traffic on the part of their servants, while 
allowing the continuance of private trade to far eastern ports 
or from port to port in India. As compensation for these 
restrictions Clive granted a monopoly of the salt-trade to 
be confined to the superior servants of the Company, civil and 
military, in graduated shares. His own share of profits was 
devoted to providing for the members of his personal staff for 
whom other provision did not exist. The Company received 
a substantial percentage; but the system was palpably ob- 
jectionable, and after two years was superseded by a prac- 
tice of allowing commissions on collections of revenue. Clive 


1 Commandants. 


78 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


pointed out to the Directors that the real remedy for malprac- 
tices and corruption was to raise the salaries of their servants ; 
but the former insisted on regarding the latter mainly as 
merchants who should look for remuneration to profits from 
private trade. 

We now come to Clive’s settlements with the Emperor 
Shah Alam and the Nawab Wazir of Oudh. After the Battle 
of Buxar the former had begged to be taken under the pro- 
tection of the British Government. He had appointed by 
patent Najum-ud-daula Nawab Nazim of Bengal, Bihar and 
Orissa. Clive now arranged that the imperial share of the 
revenue (or tribute) from the province should be £260,000 
guaranteed by the Company, who, in order to discharge their 
responsibility, would hold the office of Diwan (Fiscal Con- 
troller) offered to Clive from Delhi some years before. This 
office included a jurisdiction in civil and financial cases. The 
title of the Company to all their territorial possessions was 
confirmed by imperial patent. Shah Alam indeed was still 
an exile from his own capital, but he was titular Emperor; and 
the acquisition of the Diwani gave a superficial authority to 
the position of the Company in Bengal. 

Shortly afterwards the new Nawab, in return for a yearly 
pension of £54,000, surrendered the conduct of administration 
to two Deputies nominated by the Calcutta Council, retaining 
an armed force to be used for little more than parade purposes. 
The Company appointed the new Deputy Nawabs, who, accord- 
ing to the plan approved by the Directors, collected revenue 
for them while governing for the Nawab through the old staff 
of officials. The arrangement was a makeshift. It gratified 
the desire of the Directors to avoid responsibility for governing, 
but they were soon to learn that this responsibility could neither 
be avoided by fictions nor delegated to puppets. 

Clive’s domestic reforms were carried out in spite of bitter 
opposition from members of his Council. His jagir, his 
acceptance of presents from Mir Jafar after Plassey, his large 
share of profits from the salt monopoly, were all cast in his 
teeth both then and later on in England. He justified his 
acceptance of the jagir and presents by his remarkable services, 
by the customs of India, and by the absence in former days of 
prohibitive orders from home. His salt profits were used to 
provide for members of his personal staff, for whom no other 
provision existed. But his position was prejudiced by such 
degree of justification as existed for the charges against him. 

With the officers of the Army he was brought into collision 


THE REGULATING ACT 79 


by his determination to enforce discipline and by his stoppage, 
under orders from London, of extra allowances drawn by the 
troops since Plassey, although due on active service only. 
He quelled a dangerous mutiny by firm determination, and 
devoted the legacy which he had received from Mir Jafar 
into a military fund for the benefit of invalid officers and men 
and the widows of such as had lost their lives in the Com- 
pany’s service.t He reorganised the Bengal army, dividing 
it into three brigades. He carefully inculcated on its officers 
the all-importance of friendliness and sympathy with their 
men, as well as of discipline. They must possess a good collo- 
quial knowledge of the languages. He had been himself, in 
his own words, ever careful ‘‘ to entwine his laurels round the 
opinions and prejudices of the natives.’”? By his sympathy as 
well as by his military genius he had earned the loyalty of his 
Sepoys. 

As an indemnity for his invasion of Bihar, Shuja-ud-daula 
paid £500,000 and ceded the districts of Kora and Allahabad 
to the landless Emperor, entering into a defensive alliance 
with the Company and engaging to pay for their troops when 
he required them. This alliance served both parties in good 
stead in after-years, initiating a system of protected buffer 
States which finally found its way over the mountains of the 
north-west frontier. 

In January 1767 Clive left India for ever. His health had 
completely broken down. His work remained. The defects 
indeed of his Diwani settlement were already visible. It was 


ae temporary and an unsatisfactory expedient; but he was 


not in a position to devise a better. The Company did not 
desire to govern Bengal; and the Company’s civil servants of 
that day were neither numerous nor trustworthy, nor equipped 
by training for administration. By his alliance with Oudh, 
Clive secured the military position in Upper India for some 
time and enabled the Calcutta Government to assist Madras 
when the latter was pressed by formidable enemies. By his 
determination to limit British conquests to Bengal and Bihar 
he earned and received the gratitude of the Company. 

The five years which divided his departure from the acces- 
sion of Warren Hastings to the Governorship of Bengal re- 
vealed unmistakably the urgent need of better administration 
in that province. A premature cessation of the autumnal 
rains of 1769 caused a wide failure of crops, and an appalling 
famine followed. Large numbers of the population were 

1 Forrest’s Clive, vol. ii, p. 318. 


80 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


swept away; and one-third of the agricultural land fell out of 
tillage. Shortness of specie and varied currencies, lack of 
roads and transport, stoppage of trade, official incompetency 
and callous rigour in revenue collection, aggravated the situa- 
tion. 

In September 1769 the total balance in the Calcutta treasury 
was £3,482 and the whole reserve in the treasure-chests was 
only £46,179. About the same time the Governor-in-Council 
at Madras was insistently begging for pecuniary assistance. | 

In Madras too there was a double government. The 
‘‘northern circars’? and particular seaports were under the — 
Presidency Government. The Karnatik was ruled by Mu- 
hammad Ali Nawab of Arcot. Established in power by the 
agreement of 1755 between the rival Companies, Muhammad 
Ali had been in 1763 recognised by the Treaty of Paris as 
‘‘ lawful’? Nawab of the Karnatik. He was informed of this 
by a European adviser and encouraged to indulge in dreams of 
wider sovereignty than was warranted by his origin or by his 
feudatory position in the Moghal Empire. He sent agents to 
England, and in order to finance them, borrowed money largely, 
sometimes from servants of the Company, making his debts 
chargeable on his provincial revenues. Organising through his 
agents parliamentary and other interest, he obtained the 
deputation of an ambassador to his Court, in the shape of the 
commander of a frigate who became a thorn in the side of the 
Madras Government. 

The Karnatik was menaced by the Peishwa’s horsemen, to 
whom it had long been a happy hunting-ground, and by Haidar 
Ali the ruler of Maisur, a Muslim military adventurer of Punjab 
extraction, who had attained to supreme authority in this 
offshoot of the bygone Vijayanagar Empire, imprisoning the 
titular Hindu monarch. Haidar Ali had fought for Lally in 
the recent war and was eager to extend his dominions. To 
the north of Maisur and the Karnatik were the dominions of 
Nizam Ali, who had succeeded Salabat Jang as Subadar of 
the Deccan and had been annoyed by the Imperial ratification 
of the Company’s possession of the Northern Circars, but had 
been pacified by the offer of a defensive alliance which was 
translated into action when he was attacked by Haidar Ali. 
Shortly afterwards, however, the two combined in assailing 
the British. Confused fighting followed, which ended in peace 
with the Nizam in 1768 and with Haidar Ali in 1769. The 
Company were committed by treaty to help the restless ruler of 
Maisur if he were attacked. In 1770 he was assailed by the - 


THE REGULATING ACT 81 


army of the Peishwa, who demanded arrears of chaut. He 
asked for British assistance. His request was bitterly opposed 
by Muhammad Ali and was rejected. He was defeated, lost 
some territory and vowed revenge. The unenviable position 
of the Madras Government between this dangerous enemy and 
two faithless allies was aggravated by extreme need of money. 
They had depleted their own and the Bengal coffers. Funds 
were lacking both for investment in India and for remittance 
to England. It soon appeared that Bombay was as destitute 
of wise guidance as Madras. 

The need of a strong central authority was urgent. This 
visible fact, lack of money and reports from Calcutta, induced 
the Directors to reconsider their avowed policy of “ asserting 
no authority over native officers.’ The time was past when 
they could remain merchants and nothing more. Simul- 
taneously the enemies of Clive, both among the Directors and 
among the corrupt civil servants whom he had expelled or 
forced to resign, were using for their own ends the impression 
current among the political public in England that fortunes 
had been recently made in India with suspicious facility, and 
that this circumstance was not unconnected with the declining 
prosperity of the Company. In 1772 a climax was reached 
when the Directors applied to Lord North, then Prime Minister, 
for the loan of £1,000,000 from the State. A Select and a 
secret Parliamentary Committee were appointed, who reported 
the large sums received as presents by the Company’s servants 
and established the necessity of bringing the administration 
of the Company’s territorial possessions under control of Par- 
liament. Resolutions were framed in the House of Commons 
to the effect that all acquisitions made under the influence 
of military force or by treaty with foreign princes belonged 
of right to the State, and that Robert Lord Clive had received 
sums of money amounting to £234,000, but at the same time 
had rendered ‘* great and meritorious services to his country.” 
The latter resolution resulted from an effort vigorously made 
by certain members of the House to arraign Clive for his con- 
duct in the past, to which he vigorously replied from his place 
in the House of Commons. 

The reports of the two committees led to enactments, by one 
of which the Government met the financial embarrassments 
of the Company, who would in future submit half-yearly accounts 
to the Treasury. The other was the Regulating Act of 1778, 
entitled ‘‘ An Act for establishing certain regulations for the 
better management of the affairs of the Kast India Company 


IN—6 


82 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


as well in India as in Europe.”’ The passing of this Act marked 
the formal beginning of British-Indian constitutional history. 

Its main provisions were as follows : 

(a) A Governor-General and four councillors were to rule 
over the Presidency of Fort William. They were to hold office 
for five years and were in the meantime to be removable only 
by the Crown on the representation of the Court of Directors. 
The first Governor-General and Councillors were named in the 
Act. 

(b) The Governor-General and Council were to be bound by 
the votes of a majority present at their meetings. Should | 
divisions be equal, the Governor-General would have a casting 
vote. 

(c) The supremacy of the Bengal Presidency over the other 
Presidencies was expressly declared. The Governor-General 
and Council were to control Madras, Bombay and Bencoolen 
in Sumatra (subsequently handed over to the Dutch in ex- 
change for Malacca and Dutch establishments in India). The 
subordinate Presidencies would not be able to make war on 
or negotiate a treaty with any Indian prince or power without 
the previous consent of the Governor-General in Council, 
except in emergent cases when postponement of such action 
would be dangerous, or in cases where special orders had been 
received direct from London. 

(d) The Governor-General and Council were to obey the 
orders of the Court of Directors, who within fourteen days of 
receiving letters or advices from them were to transmit to the 
Treasury ‘* copies of all parts relating to the Company’s revenue, 
and to transmit to a Secretary of State copies of all parts 
relating to the civil or military affairs and government of the 
Company.” 

(e) The Crown was empowered to establish by charter a 
supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William consisting of a 
Chief Justice and three puisne judges to be appointed to the 
Crown. The jurisdiction of this Court will be described in 
my next chapter. 

(f) Liberal salaries were provided for the Governor-General, 
Members of Council and Judges of the Supreme Court. 

(g) Acceptance of presents was prohibited. Concern in 
private traffic on the part of civil servants employed in revenue 
collection or the administration of justice in the presidency 
of Fort William was also forbidden. Provision was made to 
prevent other abuses. 

The Act stood towards the legislation of later years in “‘ the 


THE REGULATING ACT 83 


same relation as did the earliest traction-engine to the subse- 
quent locomotive.” ! But it meant that Parliament had shoul- 
dered responsibility for the administration of the East India 
Company. It also reformed the constitution of that body. 
In spite of certain defects, it was the dawn of better things. 

The year in which it came into operation was marked by 
the death of the man but for whose dauntless courage, personal 
force and sound judgment there would have been no British 
Empire in India. Worn by conflicts, assailed by a torturing 
disease, Clive died by his own hand on November 22, 1774. 
Thirty years before, he had landed in India a friendless lad of 
nineteen. Two years later he had seen Madras captured by 
the French, and from that time onwards had been engaged in 
fierce struggles which left little time for reflection. Sharer in 
our mortal weakness, he had not escaped contagion from the 
surroundings of his time. But he had accomplished marvels. 
Though stern and imperious, his temper was always under 
command; and “in a life spent amid scenes of blood and 
suffering he has never been accused of a single act of cruelty. 
He coveted money as an instrument of ambition, but never 
acquired it in any manner that he did not openly avow.” ? 
Above all, despite his faults, his ambition was mainly for 
England. So was it that, in the words of Burke, “ he settled 
great foundations’? and ‘‘ forded a deep river with an un- 
known bottom.” 


xX 
THE FIRST GOVERNOR-GENERAL 


‘On May 11, 1772, a proclamation was issued in Calcutta under 
orders from the Directors, declaring that the East India Com- 
pany would ‘‘ stand forth as Diwan,’’ would itself administer 
the fiscal system and dispense civil justice in the -province 
of Bengal. The new administration was launched by the 
Governor at Fort William, Warren Hastings. 4 

This remarkable man had landed originally at Calcutta in 
1749 at the age of seventeen, fresh from Westminster School 
and a few weeks of mercantile training. Seven years he had 
passed in copying invoices and appraising silks and muslins. 
Then came soldiering; and afterwards diplomatic work, for 


1 Lyall, Rise of British Dominion in India, p. 179. 
* Mountstuart Elphinstone, 


84 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


which his tact, patience and acquaintance with the vernacular 
languages peculiarly fitted him. Always he had played an 
honourable part. Rising to a membership of Council, he had 
boldly combated corruption; and when, after some years of 
rest in England, he returned to India in 1769, he was appointed 
to the Council at Madras. In 1771 he was promoted to be 
Governor in Bengal. It is apparent from some sentences in a 
congratulatory letter that even Clive had failed to gauge the 
resolute quality of his character. ‘‘I thought I discovered 
in you a diffidence in your own judgment and too great an 
easiness of disposition, which may subject you insensibly to 
be led where you ought to guide. . . . A proper confidence in 
yourself and never-failing hope of success will be a bar to this 
and every other evil that your situation is liable to.” 

From April 18, 1772, to Octoger 29, 1774, Hastings was 
Governor at Fort William. His cares were confined to Bengal. 
His colleagues were fellow-servants of the Company who 
worked with him loyally. Together they laid the foundations 
of efficient administration, foundations on which Cornwallis 
afterwards built. In 1769 the Presidency Council of Governor 
Cartier had established British ‘‘ supravisors,’’ to report on all 
matters connected with the assessment of land revenue. ‘These 
men and the members of Boards of Revenue which sat at 
Murshidabad and Patna to control them, while devoting con- 
siderable attention to private trade, had assumed a quasi- 
sovereignty which was supported by the pargana battalions 
and overshadowed the authority of the Deputy Nawabs. The 
latter raised as much revenue as they could by annually 
farming out the land with little or no regard to vested interests. 
The administration of justice and police, except in the neigh- 
bourhood of Murshidabad, was in the hands of zamindars or 
such faujdars as could function. The country-people were 
oppressed by the officials and terrorised by bands of truculent 
robbers (dacoits), who were frequently in league with the 
zamindars and punished with death all who informed against 
them. So long had this state of things existed that the pro- 
fession of dacoity (gang-robbery) was largely hereditary.} 

In obedience to orders from home, Hastings called the 
Deputy Nawabs of Bengal and Bihar to account for embezzle- 
ment. They were, after prolonged enquiry, honourably 
acquitted, but the Governor-in-Council at once abolished the 
dual system of which they were victims. The ‘‘ supravisors”’ 
were converted into collectors with direct responsibility for the 

1 Hastings’s letter to the Revenue Board, August 3, 1773. 


THE FIRST GOVERNOR-GENERAL 85 


administration. They were controlled from Calcutta instead 
of from Murshidabad and Patna. Farms of the land-revenue 
were arranged for five years as a temporary measure; and 
steps were taken to collect information which should enable 
systematic revenue administration to be evolved from chaos. 
Civil and criminal courts of justice were established; and 
drastic measures were taken against dacoits, Hastings holding 
that “‘ a rigid observance of the letter of the law is a blessing 
in a well-regulated State, but in a Government loose as that 
of Bengal is, and must be for some years to come, an extra- 
ordinary and exemplary coercion must be applied to remedy 
those evils which the law cannot reach.’’ 3 

Later on, when, as we shall see, he became powerless in his 
own Council, the administration of Muslim criminal law was for 
a short period restored to a reinstated Deputy Nawab. Others 
too of his arrangements were modified or altered; but he had 
begun the great work of establishing good government in 
Bengal. He caused a manual of Hindu civil law to be 
prepared by learned Brahmans in Sanskrit and translated into 
English and into Persian, the language of the law-courts. He 
proposed also to use the digest of Muhammadan legal pronounce- 
ments which had been compiled by order of Aurangzeb. It was 
important, he thought, to remember that ‘‘ Indian customs, even 
if injudicious or fanciful, are interwoven with Indian religions 
and are therefore revered as of the highest authority.”’ 

His frontier-policy was at first determined by the following 
circumstances. On the borders of Oudh, Clive’s buffer-state, 
predatory powers were fighting over the remnants of the 
Moghal empire. On Oudh’s north-west frontier lay Rohil- 
khand, a broad and fertile territory between the Ganges and the 
_ forests at the foot of the Himalayas, inhabited mainly by 
Hindus but held in subjection by a recently established colony 
of Afghan settlers known as Rohillas (hill-men). Rohillas had 
fought at Panipat for the Afghans and at Buxar for Shuja-ud- 
daula. They were a warlike, restless confederation of petty 
chiefs. In 1772 Rohilkhand was forcibly occupied by Marathas, 
Fearing invasion of his own border, Shuja-ud-daula, accom- 
panied by a contingent of the Company’s troops, marched to 
the rescue. He executed a treaty with the leading Rohilla 
chief, engaging to expel the invaders by peace or war, and to 
repeat the process if they returned. His recompense would 
be forty lakhs of rupees paid within three years. The Marathas 
then retired from Rohilkhand ; but again approached in 1778, 

1 Bengal Revenue Consultations, April 19, 1774. 


86 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


when they were turned back by a demonstration of Oudh and 
British troops. The Nawab Wazir unsuccessfully demanded 
payment of the agreed reward. 

On the south-west also the Marathas were menacing Oudh. 
They had received from the Emperor a formal grant of the 
districts of Korah and Allahabad which had been taken by 
Clive from the Nawab Wazir and made over to Shah Alam. 
In spite of the earnest remonstrances of the Calcutta Council, 
in 1771 that luckless potentate had left Allahabad and allowed 
the Marathas to escort him to Delhi, where he remained an 
absolute puppet. Hastings therefore formally discontinued ~ 
the Bengal tribute, which had not been paid since the Famine ; 
being determined not to pay it to “‘a mock king, the idol of 
our own creation, ... the tool of the only enemy we have 
in India who want but such aids to prosecute their designs 
even to our ruin.” Meeting the Nawab Wazir at Benares in 
September 17738, he arranged to restore Allahabad and Korah 
to Oudh on payment of fifty lakhs of rupees. The considera- 
tion was raised to this sum from forty-five lakhs in consequence 
of a separate agreement engaging for the loan of Company’s 
troops for the conquest of Rohilkhand which Shuja-ud-daula 
desired to annex, in order to secure the Ganges as a barrier 
against Maratha invasion. He thoroughly distrusted the 
Rohillas and desired to force them to pay the stipulated forty 
lakhs. In addition to the extra five lakhs for Allahabad and 
Korah, he would pay the Company a large subsidy. 

Hastings, although attracted by the strategic and financial 
advantages of the scheme, hesitated, but finally assented and 
obtained the approval of his Council. The united forces in- 
vaded Rohilkhand early in 1774, and defeated the Rohillas 
after a stiff fight, killing their chief and breaking their power, 
Rohilkhand was added to Oudh; but the British Commander, 
Colonel Champion, complained bitterly of cruelties committed 
by the Oudh troops after the battle. It seems possible that 
he might have done more to prevent such outrages; but he 
was in a subordinate position which allowed him merely to 
suggest or protest. And the loan of a brigade to join in attack- 
ing a power with which no British quarrel existed was both 
opposed to orders from home and morally wrong. Un- 
doubtedly, however, Hastings had strong reason to be anxious 
for the security of the buffer province. In correspondence he 
emphasised the financial benefits of the transaction, probably 
in order to recommend it to the Directors. 

We must now review briefly that period of intense trial 


THE FIRST GOVERNOR-GENERAL 87 


which was to establish Hastings’s title to greatness. By the 
Regulating Act he became Governor-General of Bengal with 
partial responsibility for affairs in Bombay and Madras. His 
colleagues, who, like himself, were expressly named in the 
Act, were Barwell, a servant of the Company, General Clavering 
and Colonel Monson of the King’s Service, and Philip Francis, 
recently a clerk in the War Office and now the reputed author 
of The Letters of Junius. Clavering, Monson and Francis took 
office with strong prejudices against Hastings. Clavering was 
notoriously pugnacious and was possessed of considerable 
court and parliamentary influence; Monson, also a soldier, 
followed in his wake; but the ablest of the three was the 
rancorous and vindictive Francis, whose ‘‘ plotter-like habit of 
thought and conduct’?! had been acquired through years of 
use of the pen for personal objects. He conceived himself 
sent by the Prime Minister to “‘ save and govern”’ India, and 
was undoubtedly a man of great ability and of a sense of public 
duty which he frequently subordinated to personal animosity. 
The constitution of the Council, which reduced the Governor- 
General to the resource of a casting vote, should divisions be 
equal, gave the majority immediate command. They acted 
at once without regard to the baneful consequences which 
necessarily succeeded open discord in the highest places. 

On October 19, 1774, simultaneously with the new Coun- 
cillors from England, the Chief Justice and the three puisne 
judges of the Supreme Court established by Royal Charter 
under the Regulating Act landed at Calcutta. 

While in defining the powers of the Governor-General in 
Council the Act had said nothing about the source of those 
powers, about the Moghal Emperor or the King of England, 
_ it had empowered the latter to establish a Supreme Court of 
Judicature by Charter; and the charter itself had provided 
that the Court should administer the criminal law of England, 
**as nearly as circumstances permit,” to residents of Calcutta 
and its subordinate factories, ‘“‘ and to all British subjects and 
their servants resident in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.’’ 'Techni- 
cally, therefore, natives of Bengal resident outside Calcutta 
and the subordinate factories were held to be under Moghal 
rule. The civil jurisdiction of the Court was to extend to the 
East India Company itself and all European and British sub- 
jects resident in the three Provinces, and every other person 
who, either at the time of bringing an action or at the time 
when the cause of action accrued, was employed by the Com- 

1 Parkes and Merivale, Life of Francis, vol. ii, p, 416. 


a 


88 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


pany ‘‘ or any other of our subjects.’ All such could be sued 
in the Supreme Court by anyone. The law to be administered 
was not specified. Apparently it was to be English law. 
When we remember that this Court, with its yague jurisdiction, 
deriving its authority from the Crown of England, presided 
over by judges unacquainted with India, was enthroned in 
Bengal at a time when the Provincial Government, having 
drafted a code of regulations designed to conform to the 
usages and institutions of the people, was labouring to establish 
courts of its own amid chaotic surroundings, we see how in- 
evitable were the various troubles which followed. 

The Chief Justice, Sir Elijah Impey, has been pilloried by 
Macaulay on slender evidence. He had been a schoolfellow 
of Hastings, and in later life had led on the western circuit. 

Clavering, Monson and Francis began by instituting a 
rigorous enquiry into the Rohilla War in a manner which 
necessarily produced violent friction. They insisted on re- 
calling Hastings’s agent from Lucknow, the Oudh capital. 
From Shuja-ud-daula they demanded immediate payment of 
the stipulated fifty lakhs; and on his death in January 1775, 
against the strong protests of Hastings, they forced on the 
new Nawab, Asaf-ud-daula, a treaty increasing materially 
the monthly subsidy paid for the standing assistance of Com- 
pany’s troops and ceding the suzerainty of the Benares feudatory 
State. As Hastings said, ‘“‘ Nowhere is the art of depressing 
a falling interest better understood than in India,’ and the 
ruin of the Governor-General seemed assured. 

A Bengali Brahman named Nand Kumar, notoriously 
his enemy, immediately accused him of corrupt practices 
before the complacent majority; and a long struggle began. 
Its stages are marked by the trial and execution of Nand 
Kumar for forgery in 1775, the deaths of Monson and 
Clavering in 1776 and 1777, the duel with Francis in 1780. 
Although there is no proof of connection between the first of 
these events and Nand Kumar’s charges against the Governor- 
General, such connection was certainly assumed by Indian 
opinion, and all accusations against Hastings ceased. The 
death of Monson enabled him to use his casting vote. The 
death of Clavering assured his predominance. But Francis 
was able at first to influence Clavering’s successor; and the 
long discord only closed with the duel which preceded the 
former’s departure. Hastings had won at last; but the 
struggle had been very injurious to the public interests. The 
period had been marked by another contest. 


THE FIRST GOVERNOR-GENERAL 89 


The Governor-General’s Council and the Supreme Court 
were long at variance through uncertainty on both sides as 
to the extent of the Court’s jurisdiction. Frequent and dis- 
creditable disputes resulted. Hastings held that the only 
remedy was to place the Chief Justice over all the Company’s 
Courts with a large extra salary. He carried out his idea; 
but it was disapproved in England and Impey was recalled 
before he could draw any salary. By an Act of Parliament 
passed in 1781 the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was 
defined more clearly. The Company’s Courts, and Governor- 
General-in-Council as such, were exempted therefrom. 

Hastings worked under ‘a constitution made up of dis- 
cordant parts.” He rendered account to the careless Lord 
North, and to masters largely dominated by commercial con- 
siderations. He held office at a time when England was beset 
by enemies, when her American Colonies were in revolt, when 
on one occasion French and Spanish fleets entered the English 
Channel, on another sea-borne supplies to India were arrested 
by the presence of a powerful French squadron off the Coro- 
mandel coast. He was called on to finance long wars against 
formidable enemies on each side of the peninsula, to guard 
against attack in Upper India and to organise good adminis- 
tration in Bengal. The wars in Southern India were produced 
by circumstances which he was generally unable to control. 

Hardly had he become Governor-General when, without his 
knowledge, the Government of Bombay embarked on a war. 

Affairs at Poona had been unsettled since the day of Panipat. 
Three Peishwas had died, and the power of the holder of the 
office over the chiefs of the Maratha confederacy had much 
declined. The last Peishwa Naraim Rao had been murdered, 
and succession was in dispute between his uncle and his widow, 
as regent for his posthumous son. The widow was in the 
hands of certain Brahman ministers led by the acute and far- 
seeing Nana Farnavis. Hostilities began; and the uncle 
Raghunath Rao turned to Bombay for assistance. Without 
asking for sanction from Calcutta, the Bombay Government, 
on March 7, 1775, executed the Treaty of Surat binding them- 
selves to support Raghunath Rao with troops in return for a 
monthly subsidy and the cession of the island of Salsette and 
the port of Basseim, which they had long coveted as necessary 
to the security of Bombay. Both had years before been taken 
from the Portuguese by the Marathas; and hearing that the 
former were making an effort to recover them, the Bombay 
Government had in January 1775 organised an expedition 


90 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


which captured Salsette. The combined forces of Bombay 
and Raghunath Rao engaged the Regency army; but after 
some stiff fighting the war was stopped by orders from Calcutta 
which were two and a half months on the way. The war was 
denounced; but the Bombay Government was ordered to 
adhere to the demand for Salsette and Basseim. Negotiations 
began between the Supreme Government’s envoy and the 
Regency Ministers, which after some time ended in a treaty 
which ceded Salsette but abandoned the cause of Raghunath 
Rao, much to the chagrin of Bombay. Then a despatch from 
the Directors approving the Treaty of Surat complicated matters 
and encouraged Bombay to obstruct fulfilment of the new 
settlement. The Poona ministers were equally evasive, quar- 
relled among themselves and entertained a French emissary— 
a step which led to a change of policy at Calcutta. 

In December 1777 a representation from Bombay that a 
repetition of wars and intrigues similar to those stirred up by 
Dupleix was imminent and must be avoided was approved by 
the Governor-General’s Council, but only by the casting vote 
of Hastings. He decided to send a strong force across India 
to the assistance of Bombay. It arrived under Colonel God- 
dard, in time to save a somewhat desperate situation produced 
by a rash offensive movement undertaken by the Bombay 
Government with the object of placing Raghunath Rao on the 
Peishwa’s seat. They had been expressly ordered not to 
attack without positive orders. Goddard restored their for- 
tunes; but his force was small, and, after long campaigning 
and the outbreak of a separate war with Maisur, the British 
were glad to make peace first with Mahadaji Sindia, the most 
powerful of the Maratha Confederates, and then with the 
Regency ministers. By the Treaty of Salbai (1782), Salsette 
became definitely British. All European establishments except 
Portuguese were excluded from the Peishwa’s dominions. 
Raghunath Rao was pensioned off by Poona; peace with the 
Marathas was secured for twenty years. But in the mean- 
time Hastings had been called on to contend with another 
formidable power. 

The perverse folly of the Madras Government had provoked 
Nizam Ali, Nizam of Haidarabad, to unite with the Maratha 
regency and Haidar Ali of Maisur against the British. But 
the Governor-General-in-Council by conciliation induced him 
to abandon his hostile attitude. In 1780, however, Haidar 
Ali, relying on Maratha and French support, invaded the 
Karnatik with fire and sword, drawing a line of merciless 


THE FIRST GOVERNOR-GENERAL 91 


ravage round Madras, The Nawab’s troops were worthless ; 
the British force was scanty ; and on September 10 a detach- 
ment, under Colonel Baillie, was overwhelmed. Then, in 
spite of his preoccupations elsewhere, the Governor-General 
despatched Sir Eyre Coote, Commander-in-Chief, with treasure 
and reinforcements from Calcutta. Coote was long hampered 
by wretched equipment and lack of supplies, but in July 
1781 at Porto Novo he inflicted a signal defeat on Haidar Ali. 
He had not, however, the means to prosecute his victory 
vigorously; and in 1782 a French naval squadron under 
Suffren, a brilliant admiral, reached the Coromandel coast. 
Five naval actions followed with indecisive results and supplies 
from England were interrupted. 

In December 1782 Haidar Ali expired, disappointed at the 
results of his enterprise. Some of his subjects were in revolt, 
and the Marathas had proved disappointing allies. He could, 
he exclaimed, ruin British resources on land; but he could 
not dry up the sea. He regretted that he had chosen the 
wrong friends. Shortly afterwards Coote died, worn out by 
excessive trials. Haidar’s son and successor Tippu came to 
terms with the Madras Government in March 1784, some time 
after the conclusion of peace between England and France ; 
but the Treaty of Mangalore was the certain precursor of further 
war. Hastings saw this; but the Directors were anxious for 
peace. 

It was under the heavy financial stress caused by these 
dragging wars that Hastings was impelled to demand large 
sums of money from Chait Singh, Raja of Benares, and Asaf- 
ud-daula, Nawab Wazir of Oudh. The demands led to inci- 
dents which have been debated in detail from that time to 
this. Here it must suffice to say that while some of these inci- 
dents show the fine courage and coolness of Hastings, his 
inflexible tenacity of purpose in what he believed to be public 
interests, others reveal a certain laxity of principle inspired 
by extraordinary difficulties, and fostered by the surroundings 
and influences amid which his public life had from a very early 
age been passed. 

He desired ‘‘to reconcile the primary exigencies of the 
Company’s government with those which in all States should 
take the place of every other concern, the interests of the 
people ’’ subjected to its authority. He was sure that ‘“‘ atten- 
tion, protection and forbearance’’! would lead the people of 
Bengal to a high level of national prosperity. He regarded 


1 Hastings’s words, 


92 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


them with affection. In their languages, customs and re- 
ligions he took a keen interest. He was not anxious to enlarge 
the British “‘ circle of defence,’’ or to involve the Company in 
hazardous or indefinite engagements. He wished to extend 
and exalt British influence in India, largely by connecting chief 
princes such as Shuja-ud-daula of Oudh with the Sovereign of 
Britain. 

Such aims could only be achieved under a “‘ consistent and 
undivided ’’ form of government administered by a Governor- 
General with such powers as were afterwards given to Corn- 
wallis. For Hastings there were merely the constant struggles 
at his own Council-board, the financial and political emergencies 
provoked by the perversity of partially subordinate Govern- 
ments and England’s wars elsewhere, the obstacles of every 
sort and kind. From the home Government he rarely received 
anything in the nature of support. He was alone except for 
the hearty love and loyalty of the great majority of his own 
countrymen in India and for the admiration and respect which 
he inspired among the people of Bengal. By heroic patience 
and resolution he saved the empire won by Clive. For the 
faults and errors which can justly be laid to his charge he 
paid the heaviest penalty. The cruellest accusations were 
brought against him. To adopt his own language on the occa- 
sion of his impeachment, not only his actions, but his words 
and even his imputed thoughts underwent such a severity of 
investigation as would suit only a mind possessing in itself 
an absolute exemption from error. ‘‘ And from whom,” he 
added, ‘‘is this state of perfection exacted? From a man 
separated while yet a schoolboy from his native country, and 
from every advantage of that instruction which might better 
have qualified him for the high offices and arduous situations 
which it became his lot to fill.” 

As Sir Alfred Lyall finely writes of this great Englishman, 
** He saw not only the sea of troubles, which encompassed the 
English in India, but the calm and open waters that were to 
be reached by resolute and skilful navigation. So long as he 
could keep the vessel’s head straight on to the point to which 
he had set her, neither waves nor wind, nor a mutiny on board, 
could wrench the helm from his straining hands. His own 
business had latterly been rather to save the ship than to sail 
it; and he did save it at all personal hazards, risking his 
reputation freely as men risk their lives in a storm.” 


‘6 


NON-INTERVENTION 93 


XI 
NON-INTERVENTION 


In the year 1782 came peace with America. Peace with 
France followed, and continued for some years. England had 
leisure to pay attention to the course of events in India, which 
had been sufficiently remarkable to excite unusual curiosity. 
Francis had arrived in London and was preparing to renew 
hostilities against Hastings with fresh weapons and on a new 
field. He succeeded in enlisting the sympathies of Burke and 
others who distrusted the policy of the Company, and saw 
that a noxious influence from India was threatening English 
public life. ‘‘ Our laws,” said Pitt, ‘‘ have with a zealous care 
provided that no foreigner shall give a single vote for a repre- 
sentative in Parliament ; and yet now we see foreign princes not 
giving votes, but purchasing seats in this house, and sending 
their Agents to sit with us as representatives of the nation. 
No man can doubt what I allude to. We have sitting among 
us the members of the Raja of Tanjore and the Nawab of 
Arcot, the representatives of petty Eastern despots; and this 
is notorious, publicly talked of and heard with indifference ; 
our shame stalks abroad in the open face of day; it is become 
too common even to excite surprise.” 

In 1781 Indian affairs were considered by two Parliamentary 
Committees. Burke was president of one. Both reported 
adversely on the system of administration in India; and in 
1783 Fox laid a Bill before the Commons which, if carried, 
would have changed the whole constitution of the East India 
Company and transferred its patronage to the Government. 
It was defeated in the House of Lords through the interven- 
tion of King George III, and thus occasioned the dismissal 
of the Fox and North coalition Ministry. Pitt assumed office, 
and in 1784 introduced a Bill which in effect transferred the 
supreme direction of Indian civil, political and military affairs 
from the hands of the Company to those of the Governor- 
General and the President of a Board of Control, leaving patron- 
age and commercial matters to the Court of Directors. The 
Bill became law and cleared the way for a great administrative 
and political advance. 

The new Board of Control, to which the Directors were 
subordinated in all but commercial matters and patronage, 
consisted of one of the principal Secretaries of State, four 


94 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


Privy Councillors and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Their 
powers were in practice soon exercised by their President, the 
senior member other than the Secretary of State or Chancellor 
of the Exchequer. Their secret orders were communicated to 
the Court of Directors through a secret committee of three 
elected members of that body. The Court of Proprietors were 
disabled from annulling or suspending any resolution of the 
Directors which had been approved by the Board of Control. 
But in fact they retained considerable power over their Direc- 
tors; and the latter, through their patronage and their friends 
or representatives in Parliament, were able to exert no small 
influence over the Board of Control in other than commercial 
matters. 

The Governor-General’s Councillors would in future be three 
in number, including the Commander-in-Chief, who in pre- 
cedence ranked next to the Governor-General. The latter 
would have a casting vote in the event of an equal division of 
those voting. The Councils of the Governors of Madras and 
Bombay were similarly constituted, the local commanders-in- 
chief taking the place of the Commander-in-Chief in India, 
unless the latter were present. The Governors-in-Council were 
definitely subordinated to the Governor-General-in-Council in 
matters of war, revenue or “transactions with the country 
powers.”’ 

The Act contained a provision designed to prevent expan- 
sion of territory and secure neutrality in outside quarrels. It 
declared that ‘“‘ to pursue schemes of conquest and extension 
of dominion in India are repugnant to the wish, the honour 
and the policy of this nation.” The Governor-General in 
Council was therefore prohibited from making wars, or treaties 
for making war or guaranteeing the possessions of any country, 
prince or State, “except when hostilities had actually been 
commenced, or preparations had been actually made for the 
commencement of hostilities, against the British nation in 
India, or against some of the princes of States dependent 
thereon, or whose territories were guaranteed by any existing 
treaty.” 

The system of Government established by this Act remained 
substantially unaltered until 1858 except in one important 
particular. In 1786 Lord Cornwallis declined to accept the 
office of Governor-General unless his authority were enlarged. 
The Governor-General was therefore empowered by Act of 
Parliament to overrule the majority of his Council in special 
cases and to act on his own responsibility. The Act further 


NON-INTERVENTION 95 


enabled the offices of Governor-General and Commander-in- 
Chief to be combined in one person. 

A year after the return of Hastings from India, Burke moved 
in the House of Commons for papers relating to incidents of 
his administration. It is impossible here to narrate the story 
of his impeachment and trial of seven years. Elaborate efforts 
were made to depict him as a criminal tyrant. He was stoned 
with coarse and undiscriminating abuse. At last he was 
acquitted, but at a cost which almost beggared him. A com- 
promise between the Company and the Government allowed 
him to receive considerable pecuniary relief from the former 
and, after years of peaceful retirement, to die in 1818 in an 
honoured old age. He rests in a small village churchyard 
beside his devoted wife, to whom, he recorded, it was due that 
for years he had been able ‘*“‘to maintain the affairs of the 
Company in vigour, respect and credit.”’ 

The prosecution of Hastings was conducted in a spirit which 
ensured the “‘lame and impotent conclusion’’ lamented by 
Burke. But it vindicated the first Governor-General from 
many aspersions and it quickened the national sense of re- 
sponsibility for what was done in India. We owe this salutary 
outcome to the passionate persistency of Burke. 

The career of Warren Hastings was so remarkable, his per- 
sonality affords such wide ground for fruitful study, that the 
eye is idly bent on him who enters next. Yet the administra- 
tion of Charles Earl Cornwallis (1786-1793), if barren of dra- 
matic incident, was prolific in beneficial measures. The new 
Governor-General was aged forty-seven and was a soldier of 
reputation, despite his enforced surrender to Washington at 
Yorktown. He was also a man of very high character, who 
accepted office with reluctance and only when empowered to 
overrule his Executive Council should occasion demand. He 
enjoyed the fullest confidence of Parliament. In short, he 
possessed the status for which Hastings had often sighed in 
vain. He arrived at Calcutta in September 1786 and took 
charge from Sir John Macpherson, who had been the senior 
member of Hastings’s Council. 

Acting on instructions from the Directors, and assisted 
mainly by John Shore, a distinguished civil servant, Cornwallis 
carried out the famous ‘‘ permanent settlement ’’ which fixed 
for ever the land revenue to be paid by the zamindars of the 
districts then included within the regular jurisdiction of the 
Presidency of Fort William. The Government of India has 
often seen reason to regret bitterly that, as Shore recom- 


96 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


mended, the figures of demand were not fixed for a particular 
period, that in technical language the settlement was not 
‘“temporary,”’ for the finality of the assessments has cut the 
public revenues off from all share in the profits which have 
accrued from a great rise of rents and spread of cultivation. 
But it is clear that, at the time, in spite of grave defects, the 
permanent settlement tended to inspire confidence in the 
stability of the new Government. 

Developing the plans of Hastings, Cornwallis assumed full 
charge of the maintenance of law and order and placed the 
whole administration of civil and criminal justice outside the 
jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, in the hands or under the 
control of the Company’s civil servants. The Bengal Presi- 
dency was divided into districts; a collector was appointed 
to each district to conduct its fiscal affairs, and a judge and 
magistrate to keep order and administer the Muslim criminal 
law with such alterations and modifications as seemed impera- 
tive to British ideas. 

Thus the fiscal divisions, which had become disintegrated 
and scattered in the process of development, were converted 
into compact districts resembling the “‘sarkars”’ of Akbar. 
The Provinces of British India are now divided into districts, 
each under district officers otherwise known as Magistrates 
and Collectors or Deputy Commissioners. These district Officers 
represent the Government to the ordinary villager; and by far 
the greater number of the people of India are villagers. The 
maintenance of law and order among the people depends upon 
characters of individual district officers as well as on that of 
the Government which they represent. 

Cornwallis reformed the currency, abolished inland transit 
duties, improved police arrangements. All these were his 
reforms in the Presidency of Bengal. His principle was to 
place the administration in the hands of British officers. The 
law which they administered would be, as designed by Hastings, 
the Hindu and Muslim law relating to marriage, succession, 
inheritance and caste, and the Muhammadan criminal law 
anglicised by regulations of the Governor-General-in-Council. 

He further insisted on generous salaries of fixed amounts 
for civil servants, who were in no circumstances to derive 
income from commissions or perquisites. He allowed no 
jobbery from England. ‘“‘I must freely acknowledge,’ he 
once wrote in this connection, ‘‘ that before 1 accepted the 
arduous task of governing this country, I did understand that 
the practice of running persons from England to succeed to 


NON-INTERVENTION 97 


offices of great trust and importance to the public welfare in 
this country, without either knowing or regarding whether 
such persons were in any degree qualified for such offices, was 
entirely done away. If unfortunately so pernicious a system 
were revived, I should feel myself obliged to request that some 
other person might immediately take from me the responsi- 
bility of governing these extensive dominions, that I might 
preserve my character, and not be a witness to the ruin of the 
interests of my country.” 

Cornwallis arrived from England deeply desirous of peace 
and non-intervention, entirely averse from alliances. But the 
firmest efforts cannot win success for a policy which is based 
upon ignorance or disregard of actual conditions. From the 
first he was menaced by the bitter fanatical hostility of Tippu 
of Maisur, who was an object of apprehension to all his neigh- 
bours. The Nizam and the Peishwa had joined forces against 
him in 1786 and had despoiled him of territory and money. 
But now they dreaded his revenge and wanted British aid. 
Tippu, on the other hand, sent envoys to Paris and Constan- 
tinople. He raged when he heard that Cornwallis, while 
taking over from the Nizam the district of Guntur under en 
old treaty, allowed that prince a subsidiary corps of two bat- 
talions of sepoys with guns on the understanding that these 
should not be employed against specified allies of the Com- 
pany, among whom the ruler of Maisur was not included. 
Cornwallis moreover stated in his letter to the Nizam that if 
certain Maisur districts claimed by that prince ever came into 
British possession, they would be handed over to him. In 
fact, regarding war with Tippu inevitable, Cornwallis virtually 
disregarded the terms both of Pitt’s Act and of the Treaty of 
Mangalore. 

This was in July 1789, and in the following December Tippu 
attacked the territory of Travancore, a State under British 
protection. Then Cornwallis formed a league with the Nizam 
and with the Peishwa’s Government. The combined armies 
marched into Maisur. Owing to grave defects in commissariat 
and supply arrangements, the war lasted for some time. Corn- 
wallis himself took the field, but failed in his first advance 
upon Seringapatam, the enemy’s capital. But, making Banga- 
lore his advanced base, he attacked again and captured the 
outworks of Seringapatam. Tippu then yielded and signed a 
treaty which exacted a large indemnity and stripped him of 
half his territory and the suzerainty of Coorg. Additions were 
made to the dominions of the Nizam and the Peishwa as well 


IN—7 


98 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


as to the areas of the Madras and Bombay Presidencies. Tippu 
desperately sought revenge, negotiating with the Marathas, 
with the Afghans and the French. Immediately before the 
departure of Cornwallis from India, war broke out between 
England and revolutionary France. The French settlements 
in India were immediately seized, but the Isles of Bourbon and 
France still afforded a convenient base for French naval opera- 
tions. 

Fully aware of Tippu’s revengeful designs, Cornwallis endea- 
voured to secure the future by reducing to explicit and per- 
manent form those articles of the original treaty of alliance 
between the Company, the Nizam and the Peishwa which pro- 
vided that the contracting powers should guarantee to each 
other, against any future attack from Tippu, the territories 
of which they stood possessed at the conclusion of the late 
war. Nizam Ali readily accepted the Governor-General’s pro- 
posals. He retained the subsidiary corps of Company’s troops 
which he had employed since 1789 and earnestly desired addi- 
tional protection. But Nana Farnavis, the chief of the 
Peishwa’s ministers, desired the Allies to recognise a claim on 
Tippu for chaut on the part of the Peishwa. This pretension 
Nizam Ali at once rejected with excellent reason. It found no 
support in the recent Treaty of Seringapatam, and was a 
wholly unjustifiable demand prompted by Mahadaji Sindia, 
the most powerful member of the Maratha confederacy. 

Since playing a leading part in the negotiations which led 
to the Treaty of Salbai, this chief had intervened in the never- 
ending struggle at Delhi for mastery over the unfortunate 
Shah Alam and the remnants of the imperial territories. After 
desperate fighting he finally retained possession of the Emperor, 
who had by that time been blinded by one of the contending 
parties, a Rohilla, named Ghulam Kadir. Mahadaji induced 
his captive to confer on the Peishwa the title of Supreme 
Deputy of the Empire and procured for himself the title of 
Deputy of the Peishwa. He annexed the greater part of the 
Doab, including Delhi and Agra, granting the Emperor a 
monthly allowance for support of his family and court. The 
allowance was irregularly paid and the unfortunate monarch 
was virtually a poverty-stricken prisoner. 

Sindia’s regiments of regular infantry were largely trained 
by French officers; his army was commanded by a French- 
man named De Boigne and was supported by foundries, 
arsenals and accumulated military stores. It defended his 
extensive dominions not only against insurgent elements but 


NON-INTERVENTION 99 


against the Sikhs and the chiefs of Rajputana. He would 
have joined the alliance against Tippu had the Company 
agreed to assist him against the Rajputs. He was anxious 
also for effective aid from Nana Farnavis, who was then master 
at Poona, but could not convince that astute statesman that 
his ambitions were not selfish. He was certainly inimical to 
Brahman ascendency in the Maratha Confederacy, which he 
meant to lead himself. At the height of his power, he died 
near Poona on February 12, 1794, and was succeeded by his 
great-nephew Daulat Rao, then a youth of fifteen. Mahadaji 
Sindia possessed abundant courage and sagacity. His career 
as a ruler had been over-occupied with war and annexations 
which left him small leisure for civil administration. 

Owing to the Maratha attitude Cornwallis’s efforts to secure 
equilibrium in Southern India fell through. Nor was he suc- 
cessful in dealing with Oudh and the Karnatik. The former 
State was in danger from Sindia and the Maratha ruler of 
Berar. The latter was menaced by Tippu and the Peishwa. 
Both States really relied on the Company’s soldiers, and, if 
deserted, would have been immediately overrun. In both the 
ruler was feeble; his soldiers were worthless; his officers were 
corrupt; his authority required constant support. Yet pay- 
ments to meet the expenses of the Company’s subsidiary troops 
were frequently in arrears. Cornwallis was unable to devise 
a remedy. 

He left India in August 1793 after a successful term of office. 
He had been forced on occasion, by pressing necessity, to 
depart from the principles of benevolent neutrality inculcated 
by Pitt’s Act. But he had earned the approbation of his 
employers, who consoled themselves by imagining that no 
further step forward would be required, and were gratified 
by observing temporary tranquillity. He was succeeded by 
his able heutenant Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teign- 
mouth. 

Resolved to observe the letter and spirit of Pitt’s Act, Shore 
steadfastly rejected the supplications of the Nizam for an 
alliance which would protect him from Tippu and the Marathas. 
Even when Nizam Ali was menaced simultaneously by both 
these formidable powers, Shore remained obdurate. Ignoring 
the palpable fact that the British position in India was and 
is now always dependent on the opinion which is held of 
British readiness to stand for friends and against enemies, 
Shore allowed the Company’s late ally to be attacked heavily 
by a confederate Maratha army. Even the Company’s two 


100 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


battalions which the unfortunate Nizam was subsidising were 
not allowed to join his camp. He was, however, accompanied 
to battle by troops under French officers, commanded by 
Raymond, a French soldier of fortune. In spite of this cir- 
cumstance, his army, after an indecisive engagement, was 
surrounded and capitulated in the feeblest fashion. He agreed 
to a degrading peace on terms which were only partially ob- 
served ; and returning to Haidarabad furious with the English, 
increased his French corps and granted land for its main- 
tenance. But for the sudden rebellion of his son he would 
have quarrelled violently with the Governor-General. 

The hands of the Poona Government were weakened by 
the death of the young Peishwa and disputes over the succes- 
sion. In opposition to the wishes of the Brahman Ministers, 
who wanted another infant and a regency, Daulat Rao Sindia 
declared for Baji Rao, the son of Raghunath Rao, the “ old 
pretender,” who was finally accepted and installed as Peishwa 
by Nana Farnavis. Daulat Rao was then all-powerful. In 
Upper India his French general Perron, who had succeeded 
De Boigne, commanded a number of regular brigades, artillery 
and cavalry, largely officered by Europeans. 

Affairs in Oudh and the Karnatik did not mend during 
Shore’s administration; and meanwhile Tippu intrigued, 
collected his resources, and waited to make his spring. From 
the north-west Zaman Shah the Afghan menaced Delhi. In 
1796 he advanced as far as Lahore. Shore considered that 
had he gone on to Delhi, the Rohillas and other Indian Muham- 
madans would have joined him. But dissensions at Kabul 
compelled his return. 

Meanwhile the people of Bengal were steadily advancing to 
better things. ‘‘ For thirty years,’ Shore wrote, ‘‘ they have 
been free from wars, in the full enjoyment of peace, without 
invasion. No molestation is offered to their prejudices; no 
insult to their religions; and the Government is ever endea- 
vouring to frame new regulations for their happiness. I will 
not affirm that they always approve our modes; yet the 
principles are sound.’ + So far as his special presidency was 
eoncerned, Shore governed well. But, as Governor-General, 
in pursuit of neutrality, he went far to abdicate the position 
which he had inherited from his predecessor. The authority 
which he surrendered went elsewhere. It passed to Daulat 
Rao Sindia and assisted the recuperation of Tippu. It encour- 
aged French intrigue. It taught the lesson ‘“‘ that no ground 


1 Life of Lord Teignmouth, by his son, vol. i, p, 285. 


EXPANSION 10] 


of political advantage could be surrendered without its being 
instantly occupied by an enemy.” } | 

Shore was succeeded by a man of widely different calibre, 
Richard Colley Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, better known 
by his later title of Marquis Wellesley. 


XII 
EXPANSION 


Sir ALFRED LYALL has said that the foundations of the British 
Empire in India ‘* were marked out in haphazard, piecemeal 
fashion by merchants; the corner-stone was laid in Bengal 
by Clive, and the earlier stages were consolidated by Hastings ; 
but the lofty superstructure was entirely raised by a dis- 
tinguished line of Parliamentary proconsuls and generals.”’ 
We have now reached the period of the raising of the super- 
structure. It is far less intricate than the earlier periods 
described in previous chapters; and considerations of space 
allow us to do no more than summarise its main features. 

Wellesley assumed office at the age of thirty-seven. Con- 
siderable experience at the Board of Control had given him 
insight into Indian affairs. His intellect was cultivated and 
capacious. He was an intimate friend of the Prime Minister 
and possessed the confidence of Parliament. But his most 
valuable equipment was his own ardent spirit and genius for 
leadership. 

On arrival in May 1798 he found a general impression pre- 
vailing that the Company’s star was waning. French influence, 
revived and hostile, was active in formidable quarters. In 
Europe Bonaparte, full of far-reaching schemes, was crossing 
the Mediterranean to Egypt at the head of a great armament. 
In India Frenchmen were present at Seringapatam where 
Tippu was preparing for war; in Upper India where they were 
strenuously training the forces of Daulat Rao Sindia, the 
latest custodian of the puppet Emperor; at Haidarabad where 
they were commanding a corps of 14,000 of the Nizam’s sol- 
diers. Turning his eyes on his own resources, Wellesley found 
the Company’s finances embarrassed, its credit low, its troops 
unprepared, in the opinion of his famous younger brother, 
then serving in Southern India, ‘‘ to perform the operations 

1 Sir John Malcolm. 


102 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


which the crisis of the Company’s affairs was likely to require.” 
The soldiers of his subsidiary allies, the Nawabs of Oudh and 
the Karnatik, were unruly and worthless. 

Wellesley lost no time. Causing the Madras army to be 
reinforced from Bengal, he initiated negotiations with the 
Nizam which quickly led to the dismissal of that prince’s 
French officers and their replacement by British officers and 
a stronger contingent of the Company’s troops. These mea- 
sures, carried through without fuss or bloodshed, gave a re- 
markable turn to the Company’s affairs. 

Tippu was called on to renounce his French allies. He was 
informed of the destruction of Bonaparte’s fleet in Aboukir 
Bay, and was urged by the Sultan of Turkey in a letter for- 
warded through the Governor-General, to resent Bonaparte’s 
invasion of “‘ venerated’? Egypt, ‘“‘ the granary of the holy 
cities Mecca and Medina.” But clinging still to hopes of 
French support and surrounded by foolish counsellors, he 
procrastinated until at last, on March 5, 1799, the Company’s 
main army under General Harris crossed the Maisur border. 
Two months later, on May 4, Seringapatam was stormed and 
Tippu died a soldier’s death. He was a bigoted fanatic, griev- 
ously oppressive and tyrannical to his Hindu subjects and far 
inferior in ability to his father Haidar Ali, but he was cour- 
ageous to the end. 

Wellesley annexed part of his dominions and made part 
over to the Nizam, but restored a State larger than the original 
Hindu kingdom of Maisur to the ancient royal house. He 
simultaneously abolished the double government in the Kar- 
natik, which had all along been fertile in embarrassments and 
misrule. The tract was added to the Madras Presidency, and 
the Nawab of the day was allowed his title and pensioned off. 

With Haidarabad and Oudh Wellesley concluded subsidiary 
treaties on a new basis which produced large additions to 
British territory. The expenses of the contingents of Com- 
pany’s troops, necessary to secure both States from internal 
disorder and outside aggression, would in future be met not 
from payments which were in frequent arrears but from the 
revenues of certain districts which would be ceded to the 
Company. The Nawab Wazir of Oudh would simultaneously 
disband his mutinous and disorderly troops. His frontier 
would, as a result of cessions, be divided from that of Sindia 
by a belt of British territory. He was completely relieved of 
responsibility for its security, which was believed at that time 
to be menaced by Afghans as well as by Marathas. But in 


EXPANSION 103 


fact immediate Afghan peril was dissolving before the rise of 
a new north-western power. 

After the execution of Banda, the Sikhs had been depressed 
by a vigorous persecution directed by the Muslim officers of 
the Moghal Empire. But Gobind Singh had given them a 
distinct political existence and infused a religious and martial 
enthusiasm which bore increasing fruit as the Moghal power 
dissolved and Persians and Afghans swept forwards and back- 
wards across the Punjab. There were Sikh villages and Sikh 
forts, Sikh fights with the invaders. Sikh temples at Amritsar 
were destroyed by the fierce Durani; pyramids were encased 
with the heads of fallen Sikhs. But the Khalisa brotherhood 
grew and multiplied and its members met year by year at 
Amritsar seeking wisdom and unity from Gobind’s holy book. 
Their association consisted of various misals (confederacies) 
each of which followed its own leader (sardar). All Sikhs 
were horsemen and famous for the use of the matchlock 
from horseback. SBesides the ordinary misals there was a turbu- 
lent body of Akalis (Immortals), who acknowledged no earthly 
governor and claimed to have been instituted by Gobind as 
armed guardians of the purity of the faith. All Sikhs, however, 
fought readily both with outsiders for the supremacy of the 
Khalisa, and among each other for less exalted causes. Their 
business was war. ‘They were dangerous foes ; and when Zaman 
Shah, the Afghan king, invaded the Punjab in 1797 and 1798 
with a force of 30,000, he endeavoured to win the Sikh leaders 
by soft words. He was recalled by danger at home, and, on 
retiring a second time, made over Lahore to the Sikh sardar 
Ranjit Singh, who had attracted his special attention. From 
that time onward the Sikhs gradually drew together under 
the leadership of Ranjit Singh, and held the line of the Indus 
against invaders from Central Asia, thereby unintentionally as- 
sisting the development of British power in the Gangetic plain. 

Maisur, Haidarabad and Oudh were now secure. The 
Afghan danger was vanishing. But the Maratha confederacy 
demanded attention. In Central India there were the terri- 
tories of Sindia, Holkar and the Raja of Berar, stretching across 
the peninsula in a broad belt and reaching up into Rajputana 
and the Gangetic plain, covering Delhi in their sweep, menacing 
Oudh, Haidarabad and Bengal. These powers were not settled 
States with fixed boundaries, but rulers of loose and recent 
acquisitions composed partly of districts held in sovereignty 
and partly of enforced contributions from other powers. A 
claim to chaut, once admitted, was enforced by Maratha Brah- 


104 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


man tax-gatherers supported by Maratha soldiers. The Rajput 
States, weakened by long internal feuds, had for some time 
been so persecuted by Maratha persistence that they were on 
the verge of collapse. Their principal adversaries, Daulat Rao 
Sindia and Jaswant Rao Holkar, were simultaneously contend- 
ing for mastery over a weak and tyrannical Peishwa at Poona. 
Sindia commanded the larger forces, holding, in addition to 
the original acquisitions of his family, Delhi, the Doab and the 
person of the titular Emperor, with an army officered largely 
by Frenchmen and led by Perron, a French general ; but Holkar 
was a born soldier and master of guerrilla tactics. 

Warfare between the two culminated on October 25, 1802, 
in a defeat by Holkar of the combined forces of Sindia and the 
Peishwa outside Poona. Baji Rao fled, leaving his capital to 
the tender mercies of Holkar, who extorted and plundered to 
his heart’s content. The Peishwa made his way to Bassein 
and placed himself under British protection. Wellesley had 
previously invited him to enter into a defensive alliance, but 
had found him reluctant. Now he consented, and by the 
Treaty of Bassein (December 31, 1802) ceded districts yielding 
a revenue sufficient to meet the cost of a strong subsidiary 
contingent. He also excluded from his service all Europeans 
of any nation hostile to the English, and subordinated his 
relations with other States to consultation with Calcutta. He 
was conducted back to Poona by a British-Indian force, and 
Holkar retired toward Malwa laying waste the whole country- 
side. His army and the swarms of banditti who followed it 
reduced the Deccan to such depths of misery and want that 
cows, buffaloes and even human beings are said to have been 
devoured by the starving peasants. 

Wellesley then informed the other Maratha powers that 
the Peishwa was under British protection. The announcement 
was strongly resented and led at once to the second Maratha 
war, which consisted of two phases, the first of which was 
marked by the fine generalship of Arthur Wellesley and Lake 
and the notable Battles of Assaye and Laswari. Sindia and 
the Raja of Berar were thoroughly beaten and ceded wide 
territories to the Company. The British frontier advanced to 
the border of the Punjab. The blind Moghal Emperor Shah 
Alam, who was found by Lake ‘‘ oppressed by the accumulated 
calamities of old age and degraded authority, extreme poverty 
and loss of sight, seated under a small tattered canopy, the 
remnant of his royal state,’’ 1 was treated with deference and 

? Kaye and Malleson, History of the Mutiny, vol. ii, p. 2 (n). 


EXPANSION 105 


allowed a liberal income from the revenue of certain assigned 
territory in the neighbourhood of Delhi, which would be 
administered in his name by a British Resident at Delhi. The 
Nizam received part of Berar; and Sindia in 1804 entered into 
a defensive alliance with the Company. His French officers 
had left his service. His troops had been well equipped and 
had fought well, but not after Maratha guerrilla fashion, and 
in pitched battles had been unable to stand before the Com- 
pany’s forces led by generals of high renown. 

The second phase of the war was against Holkar, who, 
after refusing to join the other two chiefs, provoked hostilities 
on his own account, plundering eventually the territory of the 
Rajput chief of Jaipur, an ally of the Company. MHolkar 
adopted the old Maratha tactics and inflicted a serious defeat 
on the incautious Colonel Monson. But eventually he was 
vanquished by Lake and pursued into the Punjab, whence he 
returned later to make his submission on easier terms than 
those which he would have obtained had not Wellesley by then 
left the country. 

Wellesley had not contented himself with leaving no place 
for French intrigue; but thinking that the policy of Pitt’s 
Act, of Cornwallis, of Shore, was utterly unsuited to existing 
conditions, he had boldly discarded it. He proceeded vigor- 
ously on the contrary assumption that his object should be 
“the prosperous establishment of a system of policy which 
promises to improve the general condition of the people of 
India, and to unite the principal native States in the bond of 
peace, under the protection of the British power.” He rejected 
the feigned security of a future which left British supremacy 
doubtful and the territories of the Company and its allies 
liable to be disturbed at pleasure by restless and predatory 
powers. He was not prepared to proclaim the abolition of 
the ‘“‘ nominal sovereignty ’’ of the Emperor, which, he wrote 
on July 13, 1804, was still recognised by ‘‘ almost every state 
and every class,’ and especially by Muslims. But he was 
resolved that this nominal sovereignty should not be used as 
an instrument for furthering French or other anti-British 
designs. He believed that to afford “the King of Delhi,’ as 
he called Shah Alam, ‘‘ a tranquil and honourable asylum and 
to secure the means of comfort to the numerous and distressed 
royal family,’’ would conduce to the honour of the British name. 
He did not consider, evidently because his Majesty’s authority 
was based on tradition and sentiment only, that his claim to 
be Emperor of Hindustan need be discussed. 


106 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


It is obvious that to restore effective Moghal suzerainty was 
an impossibility. Yet every day made it clearer that, without 
an effective suzerain, India would drift interminably, torn by | 
disruptive forces, until either dominated by French ascendency 
or overrun once more from Central Asia. The East India 
Company was the sole power in the country which was in any 
way likely to evolve order out of chaos and bitter rivalry. To 
do this, it must establish its supremacy firmly and definitely. 
It is not wonderful that Wellesley’s armies were principally 
composed of Indian soldiers, that the people of the territories 
which he acquired readily accepted a change of masters, that 
the Rajput chiefs were anxious for British protection and 
believed that this alone could save them. It is certain that 
Wellesley sometimes, and notably in the case of Oudh, acted 
in an arbitrary, high-handed manner, but nevertheless the 
total value of his services to India and to Britain was incalcul- 
able. He could never have accomplished so much without the 
support which he received from the resolute temper of the 
British Parliament, then at death-grips with Napoleon. 

It must be added that his influence on internal administra- 
tion and on the training of civil servants was altogether vigorous 
and beneficent. But the large increase in the Company’s debt 
caused by constant military operations and the check at first 
sustained in the campaign against Holkar led to the withdrawal 
of the ministerial support which had carried the Governor- 
General so fast and so far. The pressure of the Company’s 
shareholders and Directors, whom he had never troubled to 
conciliate, became irresistible. He was relieved by Cornwallis 
in July 1805, and left India in the following month. His 
successor was commissioned to revert to the old policy. But 
in fact Wellesley’s policy had accomplished its object. The 
British Government was paramount. India’s territories had 
been distributed on a plan which for the most part remains 
unto this day. Her shores were mainly in British hands. 

Cornwallis, indeed, who was now sixty-six years old and 
died within three months of his arrival, declared his intention 
of removing “‘ the unfavourable and dangerous impression ”’ 
that the British Government intended to control the various 
Indian powers; and his policy was followed so literally by his 
successor Sir George Barlow that not only was the defensive 
alliance with Sindia superseded by a fresh treaty which re- 
stored to him certain territories, but British protection was 
removed from the Rajput States. The Nizam forthwith began 
to intrigue with the Maratha powers; but here he was checked 


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EXPANSION 107 


by the Governor-General, who was relieved in 1807 by Lord 
Minto, then President of the Board of Control and formerly 
a manager of the impeachment of Warren Hastings. Minto 
arrived in India firm on a policy of non-intervention, but felt 
himself compelled to aid the Raja of Berar against a turbulent 
robber chief and to insist on the limitation of Ranjit Singh’s 
dominion to the west side of the Sutlej. Between that river 
and the north-west frontier the Sikh Maharaja was now supreme 
and his sovereignty there was acknowledged on the condition 
that he came no nearer British territory. 

The mission which negotiated this settlement was designed 
also to bar the way against a possible Franco-Russian in- 
vasion. In 1807 Napoleon had concluded an alliance with the 
Tsar Alexander I, and still dreamt of an attack on India. His 
powers were then regarded as almost superhuman, and British 
missions were despatched to Afghanistan, Sind and Persia. 
Expeditions from India captured the Isles of France and 
Bourbon; the Spice Islands and Java were taken from the 
Dutch, who had become subject to Napoleon. The Cape of 
Good Hope had been wrested from them in 1806. In 1814 
their eastern possessions were restored to them, but not the 
Cape. 

In the year 1813 the Governor-General who was to make 
a final end of non-intervention arrived in India. 

The Earl of Moira, later Marquis of Hastings, an experienced 
soldier and advanced in years, proved a clear-sighted and 
courageous ruler. The year of his arrival saw the renewal of 
the Company’s charter for twenty years from April 1814, but 
the abolition of their monopoly of Indian trade, leaving 
them, however, the exclusive right to trade with China. When 
renewing the charter, Parliament required the Directors to 
spend annually at least £10,000 of Indian revenues on the 
revival and improvement of Indian literature and the intro- 
duction of “‘ the sciences’ among the people of British India, 
The clause which imposed this obligation was the first legisla- 
tive admission of the right of State education to participate 
in Indian public revenues. There was then no State system 
of education in England, and efforts in the direction of public 
instruction in India made by Christian missionaries and by 
certain European officials and non-officials had failed either 
to arrest a general decline of Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian 
learning, caused by the wars and anarchy of a hundred years, 
or to foster adequately the indigenous schools in which the 
rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic were imparted 


108 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


to some sons of zamindars, shopkeepers and village account- 
ants. Now, however, largely through the efforts of William 
Wilberforce, the new Charter Act presented two distinct pro- 
positions for the Company’s consideration: (a) the revival 
and improvement of the ancient learning, and (b) the introduc- 
tion and promotion of Western sciences. Lord Moira was 
deeply interested in these matters, but was quickly compelled 
to turn his attention to even more insistent needs. 

The territories of the Company and its allies were increas- 
ingly threatened by the Maratha powers. From the chiefs of 
Rajputana came a loud complaint. 

‘‘ Some power,’’ they said, ‘‘ had always existed to which 
peaceable States submitted, and in return obtained its pro- 
tection against the invasion of upstart chiefs and the armies 
of lawless banditti; the British Government now occupied 
the place of the protecting power, and was the natural guardian 
of weak States which were continually exposed to the cruelties 
and oppression of robbers and plunderers owing to its refusal 
to protect them.’ Their enemies were not only the Marathas 
but also the Pindaris (crop-stealers), originally the camp- 
followers and banditti, who followed in the wake of Maratha 
armies, recruited their ranks from disbanded soldiery of varied 
races, and were rapidly increasing in numbers and truculence. 
Maintaining secret understandings with the chief Maratha 
powers, these freebooters from time to time raided the terri- 
tories of the Company and its allies. Their chief leader, Chita, 
could muster 10,000 horsemen. 

But pressing as these matters were, Lord Moira first carried 
through a war with the Gurkhas of Nipal, Hindu hill-tribes of 
Mongolian origin who reigned over the highlands and valleys 
of the southern slopes of the Himalayas. The war was pro- 
voked by Gurkha raids on British territory and ended in the 
Treaty of Sagauli (1816), whereby a long stretch of hill-terri- 
tory was ceded to the British, and a British resident was re- 
ceived at the Gurkha capital Khatmandu. Ever since Nipal 
has been a trusty friend and has contributed some of the 
finest soldiers in the Indian army. 

Then Lord Moira, who had become Marquis of Hastings, 
turned his eyes on the Pindaris, whose latest exploit had 
been an incursion into some districts of the Madras Presidency, 
where they had killed, plundered and tortured far and wide. 
He decided to deal once and for all with these ruffians and their 
sympathisers. Negotiating with the Maratha powers, he con- 
cluded alliances with the Muslim ruler of Bhopal and the 


EXPANSION 109 


various Rajput States. Simultaneously he mobilised an army 
of 120,000 with 300 guns. He was his own Commander-in- 
Chief, and prepared wide and sweeping operations. Between 
September 1817 and January 1818 he constrained Sindia to 
sign a treaty engaging to assist the Company’s forces against 
the Pindaris; he crushed Holkar’s troops; he annihilated the 
organised Pindari bands and induced the remnants to settle 
down to a peaceful life. Within the same months the Peishwa, 
Baji Rao, who had for some time been preparing treachery, 
assembled a large force and attacked the British Resident 
Mountstuart Elphinstone and a small British contingent, but 
was beaten off with heavy losses and defeated in subsequent 
engagements. In June 1818 he surrendered, was deposed and 
sent off to live on a large pension at Bithur, a village on the 
bank of the Ganges above Cawnpur. His office was abolished 
and his dominions were annexed, with the exception of a small 
area round Satara which was made over to the latest descendant 
of Sivaji. 

The Maratha Raja of Berar and Nagpur, who had also joined 
in the fray, was deposed and ceded considerable Cry 
Holkar was dealt with less severely. 

The work of Wellesley was thus completed. The British 
Government was supreme in India outside the Punjab and 
Sind. Under the wise and considerate administration of 
Mountstuart Elphinstone the people of the Peishwa’s dominions 
readily accepted the new dispensation. The surviving Maratha 


_ powers desisted from demands for blackmail and settled down 


within demarcated boundaries. The Rajput States were defin- 
itely saved. In all British territory annexed since the beginning 
of the century district administration was introduced and law 
and order were established. In the Madras Presidency Sir 
Thomas Munro, having no zamindars or middlemen to deal 
with, settled the land revenue with cultivators and occupiers. 
In the present Agra Province temporary settlements were made 
with resident proprietary communities. Cornwallis’s perma- 
nent settlement with zamindars was not extended beyond its 
original limits. 

In the time of Lord Amherst, the successor of Lord Hastings, 
military operations, originally purely defensive, were under- 
taken against the Burmese, who had committed various acts 
of aggression and were threatening Bengal. In 1825 they were 
driven from Assam and from hill-States on the north-eastern 
frontier of India; and in 1821 a force sailed for Rangoon, and, 
after various vicissitudes, brought the enemy to terms. By 


110 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


the Treaty of Yandabo (1826) Assam and two of the sea-board 
provinces of Burma were ceded to the British. An indemnity 
was paid. A British protectorate over certain eastern States 
on the north-eastern frontier of India was recognised. That 
frontier was thus secured. 

It is obvious that no military victories could, by themselves, 
have achieved the remarkable expansion of British dominions 
which has been briefly narrated in this chapter. An onlooker’s 
explanation is before us in the words of Abbé Dubois, a French 
missionary who between the years 1792 and 1823 travelled and 
lived among the people of the Deccan and Southern India, 
wearing their dress, and trusted by men of all castes and con- 
ditions. He says that the ease with which a great dominion 
had been established in India by a European Power had filled 
the people of India with admiration and seemed ‘“‘ almost 
miraculous.’ But the phenomenon was easily comprehensible 
if one remembered that in the past Indian rulers had been 
despotic and oppressive. ‘* Never did the fall of one of those 
despots cause the least regret; never did the elevation of an- 
other cause the least joy.’”’ The Hindus considered themselves 
lucky enough if their religious and domestic institutions were 
left untouched by those who by good fortune or force of arms 
had got hold of the reins of government. 

The system of government adopted by the English was 
another reason for the acceptance of their rule; ‘* their effort 
and anxiety to make the people less unhappy than they had 
been hitherto; above all their inviolable respect for the cus- 
toms and religious beliefs of the country’’; and lastly, ‘‘ the 
protection they afforded to the weak against the strong.” All 
these “‘ had contributed to the consolidation of their power 
more than their victories or their conquests.” 

Another key to the causes of a revolution which was largely 
effected by Indians themselves is given by the words of Sir 
Dinshaw Wacha, spoken not long ago in the Imperial Council- 
chamber; ‘* What was justice in the time of the Moghals ? 
What was justice in the time of the Mahrattas? I appeal 
to my countrymen never to forget when we talk of law and 
justice that we are indebted to Englishmen for these invaluable 
boons,”’ 


a 


THE DAWN OF MODERN PROBLEMS 111 


XIII 
THE DAWN OF MODERN PROBLEMS 


Lorp Hastines had secured peace in India. The Treaty of 
Yandabo had carried the British flag beyond the Bay of Bengal. 
For a time expansion ceased. But the administration of Lord 
William Bentinck (1828-1835) was pregnant with far-reaching 
consequences. To understand its achievements we must 
remember that the period was one of political change in Eng- 
land, change which contributed to inspire the ideas of the 
Governor-General himself and of such thoughtful and prescient 
servants of the-Company as Metcalfe and Mountstuart Elphin- 
stone. A small section of Indians, too, was touched by the 
spirit which prevailed in England. 

It will be useful to form some clear impression of conditions 
in British India at this time. Travelling extensively in 1824-5, 
Bishop Heber observed general tranquillity in British territory. 
Yet the Government only employed military force in affairs 
of real war, or where active and competent police were clearly 
insufficient to provide for the public safety. Visiting Benares, 
the sacred city of the Hindus, Heber found that the military 
had been called in only once in the past twenty-five years, on 
account of a religious riot between Hindus and Muhammadans 
which would have resulted in the extermination of the latter 
had not this step been taken. At the same place the Bishop 
enquired which Governors of India had stood highest in Indian 
opinion. He found that “they usually spoke of Warren 
Hastings and Lord Wellesley as the greatest men who had 
ever ruled in this part of the world, but that they spoke with 
most affection of Jonathan Duncan”’ (a civil servant of the 
time of Cornwallis). Duncan Sahib’s younger brother was 
still the usual term of praise applied to any public man ‘‘ who 
appeared to be actuated by an unusual spirit of kindness and 
liberality toward their nation.’ Of Warren Hastings many 
traits were preserved; and a nursery rhyme, often sung to 
children, seemed to show their pleasure ‘‘ at the Oriental (not 
European) pomp which he knew how to employ on occasion.”’ 

Heber describes the people of Upper India as generally well 
affected to the Company’s government. But something yet 
remained of the days when *‘ no man was sure that he might 
not at any moment be compelled to fight for his life or pro- 
perty.” The people were still of lawless and violent habits, 


112 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


and everyone found it desirable to take his arms with him on 
a journey. When Heber travelled in a caravan from Allahabad 
to Cawnpore all his servants were armed with spears, and some 
had ‘‘ added sabres of the largest growth.’’ The Bishop found 
Rajputana molested only by lurking gangs of marauders, 
relieved from apprehension of *‘ the annual swarm of Pindaris 
who had robbed, burned, ravished, enslaved, tortured and 
murdered ”’ in times past. 

In Calcutta, which had been for some years a centre of 
Christian missionary and Western-educated Hindu activity, he 
noticed ‘‘ an increasing disposition to imitate the English in 
everything, which had already led to very remarkable results 
and will probably lead to results still more important.” 
Wealthy Indians drove the best horses and the most dashing 
carriages. In their newspapers English politics were canvassed 
‘*‘ with a bias to Whiggism,”’ and a leading man had given a 
big dinner recently in honour of the Spanish revolution. 

Bentinck was a soldier and diplomatist of considerable 
experience who had been Governor of Madras from August 
1803 to September 1807. He had resigned in consequence 
of the dissatisfaction of the Directors with his conduct of 
affairs in connection with a tragic mutiny of Sepoys at Vellore. 
But he had proved himself a good financier; and in 1827 
the Directors were seeking for such a man. He succeeded to 
a deficit; and so carefully did he economise that he left a 
surplus of £1,500,000. Perhaps the most notable of his re- 
trenchments was that resulting from a widely increased employ- 
ment of Indians in the subordinate magistracy and judiciary. 
He also initiated a new thirty years’ revenue settlement in the 
North-western (now the United) Provinces which yielded 
substantial increment to the State finances. 

But it is as a humanitarian that Bentinck conferred indelible 
benefit upon India. In absolutely prohibiting the self-immola- 
tion of Hindu widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands 
he saved many a poor woman from a horrible fate, and put a 
stop to satt, a practice revolting to enlightened Hindu thought 
but tolerated by his predecessors from reluctance to interfere 
with usages sanctioned by religious custom. In suppressing 
thagi (cheating) he broke up gangs of hereditary robbers and 
murderers who, seeking propitious omens from the Hindu 
goddess Kali (of strength or destruction), sought and slew 
numerous unsuspecting victims on highways and byways. 

The latter portion of Bentinck’s administration was affected 
py the passing of the Government of India Bill of 1883 through 


ra 


THE DAWN OF MODERN PROBLEMS 113 


the British Parliament. The Company’s charter was due for 
renewal; and, as usual, renewal was preceded by the enquiries 
of a Select Committee appointed by the House of Commons 
‘**to make recommendations as to future policy.” The follow- 
ing were the most important provisions of the Act which resulted 
from the report of this Committee : 

(a) The sovereignty of the Crown was definitely asserted 
over the Company’s territories, which were declared to be held 
“in trust for His Majesty.” 

(b) The Company would no longer be allowed to engage in 
any kind of trade. It would be simply a governing agency. 

(c) The Governor-General of Fort William in Bengal became 
*“the Governor-General of India in Council.’ The Council 
would be strengthened by a ‘“‘ Legal member”’ entitled to sit 
and vote only at meetings convened for legislative purposes. 
Macaulay, afterwards the historian, was the first ‘* Legal 
member.”’ 

(d) Legislation had until then taken shape in regulations 
framed by each of the three presidency-governing Councils. 
Much confusion had resulted. It was now provided that laws 
should be enacted by the Governor-General in Council only, 
who would receive expert assistance. Law-Commissioners, 
too, were appointed to regulate the courts and codify the penal 
and procedure law on English principles, paying “‘ due regard 
to the rights, feelings and peculiar usages of the people.” 

(e) The Presidency of Bengal would still remain under the 
control of the Governor-General-in-Council; and it was not 
until twenty years later that it was given a Lieutenant-Governor 
of its own. 

A new Presidency of Agra was arranged, but eventually it 
_ became a Lieutenant-Governor’s charge under the title of the 
North-western (later the United) Provinces. 

(f) A section of the Act declared that no native of India, 
by reason only of religion, place of birth, descent, colour, or 
any of them, would be disabled from holding any office or , 
employment under the Company. | 

By a despatch dated December 10, 1834, the Directors — 
endeavoured to give effect to the policy of this Act. Natives 
of India were, they wrote, to. be admitted to places of trust 
as freely and extensively as regard for the due discharge of 
the functions attached to such places would permit. Fitness 
would be the criterion of eligibility. In order that natives 
of India might become fit and able to compete for the public 
service with a fair chance of success, every design tending to 


IN—8 


114 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


their improvement was to be promoted, ‘‘ whether by con- 
ferring on them the advantages of education or by diffusing 
on them the treasures of science, knowledge and moral culture.”’ 
It must, however, be remembered that ‘it is not by holding 
out incentives to official ambition but by repressing crime, 
by securing property, by ensuring to industry the fruits of its 
labour, by protecting men in the undisturbed enjoyment of 
their rights and in the unfettered exercise of their faculties, 
the Governments best minister to the public wealth and happi- 
ness.” 

In pursuance of the policy laid down in this despatch, Ben- 
tinck declared on March 7, 1835, that the great object of the 
British Government ought to be the promotion of European 
literature and science among the natives of India. Up to 
that time Christian missionaries had been the chief pioneers 
of Western learning. But now its advancement would be the 
policy of Government. This decision was largely inspired by 
a famous minute of Macaulay’s and closed a long controversy 
between Westerners and Easterners. Both schools quoted the 
Charter Act of 1818. Both held that the vernaculars were 
not yet developed sufficiently to be used as the media of 
Western knowledge. The question was whether “‘ the sciences ”’ 
were to be diffused through English or through Sanskrit, 
Persian or Arabic?! It is not surprising that the advocates 
of English won, but they too desired that the vernaculars 
should be properly taught in all schools and looked forward 
to a time when through these tongues Western knowledge and 
modern science would be widely diffused. They considered 
that if, meantime, Western education were spread through 
English at State expense among the higher classes, it would 
filter down to the masses ; and accepting this view, which proved 
fallacious, the Government left indigenous vernacular schools 
to their own devices, and devoted its energies to the promo- 
tion of secondary (English) education. The same object was 
zealously pursued in Christian missionary schools and colleges. 

In such circumstances, and assisted by the fact that in 1837 
Persian, inherited from the Moghals, ceased to be the language 
of the law-courts, a knowledge of English spread rapidly at 
and near the big sea-ports, confining itself to the clerical, pro- 
fessional and trading classes, the descendants of the clerks 
accountants, physicians and merchants of Moghal days. The 
martial and landed classes generally held aloof from the new 
learning, which inevitably pushed Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic 

1 Calcutta University Commission Report, p. 35, 


THE DAWN OF MODERN PROBLEMS 115 


into the background and was therefore repugnant to the 
teachers of the Hindu and Muslim scriptures. From that time 
to this it has mainly partaken of a literary character, exercising 
memory above other faculties and stimulating imagination. 
Its influence was further extended by the removal of Press 
restrictions carried out by Bentinck’s successor, Sir Charles 
Metealfe, but prepared by Bentinck’s toleration of all news- 
paper comments. 

Government control of the Press dated from Wellesley’s 
days, when the Indian seas were infested by French privateers. 
Regulations then passed restricted publication of naval and 
shipping intelligence. Other regulations were made by Lord 
Hastings and again in 1823 by Mr. Adam, his temporary suc- 
cessor. Adam’s regulations ordained that every newspaper 
published must receive a licence from Government, which 
could be revoked at pleasure with or without enquiry or notice. 
The principle of which these regulations were the extreme 
exponent is apparent from evidence given by Mountstuart 
Elphinstone to a Parliamentary Committee in 1832. “If the 
press be free we shall be in a predicament such as no State 
has yet experienced. In other countries the use of the press 
has gradually extended along with the improvement of the 
country and the intelligence of the people; but (in India) we 
shall have to contend at once with the more refined theories 
of Europe and the fanaticism of Asia, both rendered doubly 
formidable by the imperfect education of those to whom every 
appeal will be addressed.” 

Bentinck, however, in practice allowed liberty to the press, 
and Metcalfe, his successor, abolished all restrictions, holding 
such abolition requisite, whatever might be the consequences, 
in the interests of the spread of ‘‘ the enlightened knowledge 
and civilisation, the arts and sciences of Europe.’ By this 
step Metcalfe lost the confidence of the Directors. 

Bentinck was reluctant to interfere with any Indian States, 
but was compelled to depose the Raja of Coorg, a monster of 
cruelty, and, by the desire of the inhabitants, he annexed that 
small country. He also annexed Cachar, on the north-east 
border of Bengal, from which the Burmese had withdrawn ; 
and he deposed the Hindu Raja of Maisur for incapacity and 
misrule. For fifty years Maisur was administered by British 
officials. 

In 1832 a commercial treaty was concluded with Ranjit 
Singh, the ruler of the Punjab; and in 1834 a convention 
was negotiated with the Amirs of Sind for opening the waters 


116 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


of the Indus to Indian merchants and traders. The object 
of both agreements was partly political. Bentinck was anxious 
to associate the Punjab and Sind with British India in defence 
of the line of the Indus against invasion from Central Asia. 
He further wished to fortify this rampart by a friendly 
Afghanistan, a security which, from the position of that country, 
must always be ‘‘ a cardinal point of the whole Asiatic ques- 
tion’ to the rulers of India. 

Afghanistan has well been described as a star of valleys 
radiating round the peaks of the Koh-i-baba Range and every- 
where bounded by rugged mountains. The chief boundary 
range is the Hindu Kush. The eastern part of the country 
is represented by the towns of Kabul and Ghazni, the western 
by Kandahar and Herat. ‘‘ Kabul,’ wrote Sir Alexander 
Burnes in 1841, ‘‘ owes its importance more to its position, 
which is centrical for commerce, than to its being the seat 
of government; and it has therefore stemmed with success 
the various revolutions which have disturbed the peace of 
Afghanistan. Invigorated as it is by this advantage of posi- — 
tion, there are few places of the East better adapted for com- 
merce. Its political, although inferior to its mercantile, advan- 
tages are enhanced by them, since Kabul has a rapid and 
regular communication with the countries adjacent. And as 
to the abundant resources of foreign lands, it has not the 
wealth, nor has it the exuberant production of India or even 
Bokhara, but it possesses a race of people far more hardy 
than the inhabitants of either of these regions, who have, for 
the last eight or nine centuries, enabled the rulers of Kabul to 
overrun the surrounding countries.”’ 

It may be said of the little people of Afghanistan generally 
that they are as warlike and fanatical a race as is to be found 
on the face of the earth. They are now separated from India 
by tribes of their Muslim co-religionists, able, if combined, to 
raise some 130,000 well-armed fighters; and in Bentinck’s 
days the Sikh Empire of Ranjit Singh, extending over the 
Punjab and Kashmir, and the small province of Sind under 
Amirs of Baluchi extraction, also interposed. 

The founder of the Afghan nation, as it exists to-day, was 
Ahmed Shah Durani, the victor of Panipat. When he died 
in June 1773 he had consolidated the Afghan tribes into one 
people. First reigning at Kandahar, he had added Kabul 
and Ghazni to his kingdom and wrested Herat from Persia. 
The epitaph on his tomb records that ‘‘ the ears of his enemies 
were incessantly deafened by the noise of his conquests.’ His 


THE DAWN OF MODERN PROBLEMS 117 


son, however, lost much of these. One grandson was Zaman 
Shah, who menaced India in Lord Wellesley’s time, but was 
recalled to his own country by rebellion, was driven from his 
throne and was blinded. Another was Shah Shuja, who ruled 
with the assistance of an able minister, Wazir Ali Khan, also 
a Durani but of a different clan. Shah Shuja too was over- 
thrown, and in 1816 took refuge in British territory. For some 
time Afghanistan was rent by civil strife, and eventually Dost 
Muhammad, a brother of Wazir Ali Khan, became King of 
Kabul. In 1834, however, Shah Shuja tried but failed to 
recover his throne. He returned to Ludhiana in British terri- 
tory on the boundary of Ranjit Singh’s kingdom. That 
monarch had given him money with the approval of the 
Governor-General. 

Bentinck left India in 1835 after six useful and prosperous 
years. An interregnum was filled by Sir Charles Metcalfe, 
whose tenure of office was, as we have seen, signalised by the 
removal of all restrictions from the press. After the arrival 
of Lord Auckland, the new Governor-General, a cloud on the 
north-west horizon, at first no bigger than a man’s hand, 
began to overspread the sky. Lord Auckland was a worthy 
man, without commanding qualities, who proved totally un- 
equal to perplexing responsibilities. 

By the Treaty of Turkman Chai (1828) the complete control 
of the Caspian and two provinces of Persia had passed to 
Russia. Persia had lost a war in which she considered herself 
entitled to British aid under the terms of a treaty signed in 
1814, after negotiations undertaken to baffle the schemes of 
Napoleon. From 1828 Tehran passed under Russian influence. 

In 1834 Muhammad Shah, King of Persia, decided to seek 
compensation for Persian losses to Russia in an enterprise 
against Afghanistan, and to attack Herat, then under the rule 
of Shah Kamran, a nephew of Shah Shuja. It must be under- 
stood that Dost Muhammad reigned over Kabul only. Kan- 
dahar was under certain of his brothers. Another brother had 
been ruler of Peshawar, formerly part of the Durani Empire, 
but had lost it to Ranjit Singh in 1834, 

Herat has been called ‘“‘ the gate of India,’’ because within 
the surrounding tract great roads to India converge. Both 
the Kandahar chiefs and Dost Muhammad were reported by 
the British ambassador at Tehran to have made overtures 
to Persia for partition of the Herat district. In 1836 Dost 
Muhammad, renewing overtures previously made to Lord 
William Bentinck for intercession with Ranjit Singh in favour 


118 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


of the rendition of Peshawar, was told that the British Govern- 
ment could not interfere. He then despatched an emissary 
to St. Petersburg. In April 18387 he made a dash upon 
Peshawar, but was driven back. In September 1837 Captain 
Alexander Burnes entered Kabul as special.envoy from Cal- 
cutta. His task was to win Kabul and save Herat from Persia 
and Russia. In November a Persian army besieged Herat ; 
and in December Witkewich, a Russian envoy, arrived at 
Kabul. 

Burnes soon found that unless he could promise Dost.Muham- 
mad that the Governor-General would press Ranjit Singh 
to give up Peshawar, his mission must be hopeless. He left 
Kabul on April 26, 1838, Witkewich remained. The siege 
of Herat caused vague unrest in India. The Government 
became alarmed and were stimulated by communications from 
England, where it was considered that Dost Muhammad was 
inclined to Persia and Russia. In June and July a “ Tri- 
partite Treaty’ was signed by Ranjit Singh, Shah Shuja and 
the Governor-General. Shah Shuja was to be restored to the 
throne of Kabul, although his whole career had been a failure 
and Burnes had reported that Dost Muhammad was an able 
and popular ruler, adding, however, that Shah Shuja could 
be restored easily by British intervention and thus greatly 
underrating Afghan patriotism. It was decided to employ 
the Company’s troops on this restoration, a policy approved 
in a despatch of the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors 
which arrived in India on January 16, 1839, when war with 
Dost Muhammad had already been declared, and a British 
army was on its way to Kabul through Sind and the Bolan 
Pass ** to establish permanent British influence in Afghanistan.” 
The enterprise was all the more unfortunate as in September 
1838 the Persians had raised the siege of Herat, alarmed by 
the despatch of a British expedition to the Persian Gulf. 

The military expedition into Afghanistan was at first suc- 
cessful. Dost Muhammad was defeated; and in August 1839 
Shah Shuja was triumphantly conducted into Kabul. Witke- 
wich had long departed. Ranjit Singh had died, and the 
British communications were endangered by the frontier tribes 
and by the unsettled state of the Punjab. The restored Amir 
proved a broken reed. In a short time Afghanistan was seeth- 
ing with rebellion and intrigue, although Dost Muhammad 
had given himself up and been taken to India. 

In November 1841 Sir William Macnaghten, British Envoy 
at Kabul, was preparing to leave for the Governorship of 


THE DAWN OF MODERN PROBLEMS 119 


Bombay when the city mob rose and murdered Alexander 
Burnes. Then followed one tragedy after another. Mac- 
naghten was assassinated by Akbar Khan, a son of Dost 
Muhammad, at a meeting to which he had been enticed. The 
British force of. 16,000 at Kabul began a disastrous retreat 
under an incapable general in the bitterest winter weather. 
One hundred and twenty fell into the hands of Akbar Khan 
as prisoners. Of the rest only one survivor reached Jelalabad 
on the way back. All others perished. Lord Auckland left 
India shortly after the news of this supreme catastrophe had 
arrived; and it fell to Lord Ellenborough, his successor, to 
gather up the fragments of a mistaken and ill-starred enterprise. 
Shah Shuja had been murdered by his countrymen; but 
Generals Pollock and Nott restored the credit of British arms, 
and on September 16, 1842, the British flag waved once more 
over the Bala Hissar (palace-citadel) of Kabul. Then the 
British generals and armies departed and Dost Muhammad 
returned to his throne. Twenty thousand lives and fifteen 
millions sterling had been squandered. 

The conquest and annexation of the small province of Sind 
followed shortly after the conclusion of the Afghan War. For 
this enterprise Lord Ellenborough and Sir Charles Napier were 
responsible. It was disapproved by the Directors and its sole 
justification consists of two facts coupled together, that Sind 
commanded both the mouths of the Indus and the way to the 
important Bolan Pass, and if not annexed by the Company, 
would certainly have been seized by the Sikhs or the Afghans. 
In February 1843 the Amirs of Sind were defeated by Sir Charles 
Napier at Miani, and afterwards the country was pacified and 
settled by the same masterful soldier, Khairpur being reserved 
as a protected State enjoying its own government. 

Sind and other matters led to the recall of Lord Ellen- 
borough. Before departing he settled affairs in the Gwalior 
State of Maharaja Sindia, a minor, where the army had taken 
command. That force was, however, defeated at Maharajpur 
and Paniar in December 1843, and Gwalior became definitely 
a protected State. 

It was by Act V of 1843, passed during the administration 
of Lord Ellenborough, that the legal recognition of slavery, 
which had existed for centuries in India, was finally abolished. 
Millions of slaves thus gradually obtained their freedom. 


120 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


XIV 
DALHOUSIE 


Rawnsit Sincu, ‘‘ the Lion of the Punjab,’”’ had welded a loose 
and turbulent fraternity into a Sikh kingdom. His co-religion- 
ists were in fact a small minority in the Punjab; but the 
more numerous Hindus and Muslims were leaderless and 
succumbed to Sikh vigour and enthusiasm directed by a born 
ruler of men. Ranjit’s army contained soldiers of all three 
religions drilled under the supervision of such European soldiers 
of fortune as Allard and Ventura, who, with full power over 
promotion and punishment, made infantry, cavalry and artil- 
lery alike efficient. The Sikh Maharaja (great King) wrested 
Attock, Multan, Kashmir and Peshawar from the Afghans, 
who were quarrelling desperately among themselves; but, 
impressed by the victories of Lake, he cultivated friendly 
relations with the British. He ruled his kingdom with vigour ; 
and making constant progresses, kept a vigilant eye on his 
sardars and revenue-farmers. Although illiterate, like Sivaji 
and Haidar Ali, he transacted business with extreme quickness 
and possessed a remarkably retentive memory. He inflicted 
punishments of relentless severity, but was easy and pleasant 
to his intimates. One-eyed, meagre and stunted in body, 
addicted to sensual indulgence, he was yet a famous fighter, 
-and in battle with the Afghans at Nowshera in 1823, had 
together with his Akalis, ‘‘ whom he freely expended in such 
engagements,’ 1 personally determined the fortunes of the 
day. Within his dominions life and property were far more 
_secure than they had been for a century and more, although 
the rude justice administered afforded little chance to the 
poor. 

Ranjit proved faithful to all his engagements with the 
British. But when he died on June 27, 1839, his army took 
command of the Punjab. One successor after another was 
murdered, until at last the Khalisa, or Sikh Church-militant, 
accepted as its nominal ruler Dalip Singh, a child of five, alleged 
to be the son of the great Maharaja. His mother, the Rani 
Jindan, became regent; and, aided by her paramour Lal 
Singh, she sought relief from her embarrassments in urging 
the all-powerful army to invade British territory. On Decem- 
ber 18, 1845, the invasion began. 

1 Henry Lawrence, An Adventurer in the Punjab, pp. 127-8. 


> 


DALHOUSIE 121 


Sir Henry, afterwards Lord, Hardinge, had succeeded Lord 
Ellenborough as Governor-General in July 1844. <A soldier of 
high reputation in the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns, 
he had sat in Parliament for some years and had served as 
Chief Secretary for Ireland. Wary, and well-versed in civil 
and military affairs, he had watched the clouds gather in the 
north-west and was ready to meet the storm. Meantime he 
had done much to improve internal administration, had begun 
to plan an Indian railway-system and had taken measures to 
suppress sati and infanticide in Native States. Now he was 
called on to meet the onslaught of an army of 72,000 men with 
881 guns. On December 13, 1845, he issued his proclamation 
of war. It had been, he said, the earnest desire of the British 
Government to see a strong Sikh Government established in 
the Punjab, able to control its army and protect its subjects. 
Now, however, the Sikh army had, without the shadow of 
provocation, invaded British territories. War was declared 
because these “‘ violators of treaties and disturbers of the public 
peace ’’ required punishment. . 

Not without great exertions and after four pitched battles 
culminating in Sobraon, fought on February 10, 1846, were 
the Sikhs driven back over the Sutle] with much slaughter 
and compelled to yield. Lahore was occupied in the same 
month; Sikh territory on the British side of the Sutlej was 
annexed as well as the Jalandhar Doab between the Sutlej and 
the Beas; Kashmir was ceded ; many guns were surrendered ; 
the Sikh army was considerably reduced ; but the government 
of the Punjab was still to be vested in the young Maharaja, 
or rather in Lal Singh his minister, under the supervision of 
the British Resident, Sir Henry Lawrence. Kashmir, which 
had been taken by Ranjit Singh from the Afghans, was now 
given in subordinate sovereignty to Raja Gulab Singh, chief 
of Jammu and one of Ranjit Singh’s old captains. An amended 
treaty was executed in December 1846, by which Lawrence, 
whose noble and chivalrous character was much appreciated 
by the Sikh sardars, became president of a council of regency 
and real ruler of the Punjab, assisted by a carefully selected 
staff of officers, which included his brother John. But when 
in January 1848 Lord Hardinge went home, after considerably 
reducing the Company’s army in the expectation that “‘ it 
would not be necessary to fire a gun in India for seven years 
to come,’’ Henry Lawrence departed too, on sick-leave. 

Lord Hardinge was succeeded by the Earl, afterwards Mar- 
quis, of Dalhousie, a Scotch nobleman, only thirty-five years 


122 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


old, who had been President of the Board of Trade and, deli- 
cate in constitution, possessed strong sense, determination, 
high courage and an ardent spirit. He had held office for 
three months when, in April 1848, the assassination of two 
British officers at Multan formed the prelude to another des- 
perate Sikh war. 

Although Mulraj, the Sikh Governor of Multan, raised the 
standard of revolt in April 1848, Lord Gough, Commander- 
in-Chief, postponed military operations to the following cold 
weather. Theoretically it was the duty of the Regency 
Government to take action; in fact Lieutenant Herbert 
Edwardes, employed under that body, had lost no time in 
collecting what local forces he could and in attacking Mulraj, 
whom he defeated and drove into Multan. But then operations 
hung fire; and a regular siege of that place was not begun 
until September. Rebellion had time to spread and become 
general. The Sikh leaders obtained the aid of Dost Muhammad 
of Kabul by offering him Peshawar. On January 13, 1849, 
was fought the bloody and indecisive Battle of Chilianwala, 
the news of which in England caused the despatch of Sir Charles 
Napier to India to supersede the Commander-in-Chief. But 
on February 21, 1849, at Gujrat, Lord Gough retrieved his 
reputation by routing the Sikh army finally and decisively. 
Two thousand Afghans, who had joined the Sikhs, were chased 
back to their mountains. Multan had already been stormed ; 
and Mulraj had been captured. 

Dalhousie decided that no more experiments could be 
attempted. Annexation was the solution. “If,’ he said 
afterwards, ‘I had not proclaimed a distinct policy of one 
kind or another, I should have had the whole country in one 
month in riot and utter anarchy, and harm would have been 
done which years and years could not have made good. What 
I have done, I have done as an act of necessity.” On March 29, 
1849, Dalip Singh resigned all claim to sovereignty for himself, 
his heirs and successors. But five cis-Sutlej Sikh States, 
rescued by the British years before from Ranjit Singh, and 
other trans-Sutle} States, Rajput and Sikh, remain unto this 
day protected autonomous powers. 

The Government of the new province was committed to a 
Board consisting of Henry and John Lawrence and a civil 
servant from Bengal who in 1851 gave place to the amiable 
and courageous Robert Montgomery. The Board presided over 
a select body of fifty-six British civil and military officers. 
The people were disarmed. The north-west frontier was 


DALHOUSIE 123 


fortified. Roads were made. The land-revenue was reduced. 
Slavery, thagi and gang-robbery were stamped out; criminal 
and civil law and procedure, suitable to the ideas and circum- 
stances of the people, was introduced. The province was 
consummately well governed by able, sympathetic and fear- 
less administrators under three chiefs of the highest character ; 
and the results were marvellous. While the Lawrences differed 
in some ideas, the elder being inclined to favour the fallen 
Sikh sardars, and the younger, who was keeper of the Public 
Purse, inclining to champion the peasants, the Punjab and its 
officers benefited by the fine qualities of both brothers. In 
1853 Dalhousie moved Henry Lawrence to the charge of the 
Rajputana agency and made John Chief Commissioner. But 
the memory and influence of Henry remained in the province 
and contributed to the spirit which animated its chiefs and 
soldiers in 1857, 

In 1851 came a war with the court of Ava as the climax 
of a long series of insults offered and aggressive acts committed 
by that barbaric power. The great pagoda of Rangoon was 
stormed on April 17, 1852; and Pegu, or Lower Burma, was 
annexed. Control of the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal 
was thus secured. The new province was governed with firm- 
ness, consideration and complete success. 

We can only understand certain annexations of protected 
Hindu States carried out by Dalhousie if we realise that in 
his day the orders of the Directors were to avoid actual inter- 
vention in the government of Native States generally. If 
good advice were disregarded, however repeatedly, neither 
suspension nor temporary forfeiture of governing powers 
should be resorted to. Wrestling with difficulties arising from 
this prohibition, convinced that British rule was for the happi- 
ness of the people, anxious to push on railways, canals and 
public works, for the benefit of all India, unable in parts of the 
country to accomplish this purpose without consolidating 
scattered British territory, desirous also of obtaining sufficient 
revenue to finance his schemes of improvement, Dalhousie, in 
dealing with particular Hindu States, resorted to the doctrine 
of lapse, or escheat, whereby if natural heirs to ‘“‘ dependent ”’ 
chiefships failed, the States concerned “‘ lapsed ’”’ to the supreme 

spower. ‘“‘ Dependent” States were those which had been 
created or revived by the grant of the British Government. 

In applying this policy he came into contact with Hindu law, 
which requires adoption of a son, in default of male issue, in 
order that the father’s soul may be saved from hell. Ifa Hindu 


124 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


dies without adopting, his widow adopts for him. Adopted 
sons have all the rights of natural sons; but in those days, 
if succession to a chiefship were involved, a marked distinc- 
tion was drawn between the sovereignty, with its attributes, 
and personal property. Even in the Hindu empire of the 
Peishwas sanction to succession to the former had been re- 
quired from the paramount power which protected the integrity 
of the State and possessed a reversionary right to the govern- 
ment thereof. Dalhousie, applying the principle, with con- 
currence from home, refused to sanction succession by adoption 
to sovereignty in cases of dependent States, if for reasons of 
policy he desired annexation. In this way he annexed seven 
out of several hundred principalities, including three of con- 
siderable importance. He proposed to annex an eighth, but 
was overruled in England. ; 

He further abolished certain empty titles and recommended 
that on the death of Bahadur Shah, the titular King of Delhi, 
the dignity should cease and the royal family should be re- 
quired to quit the palace-fort, which the Governor-General 
regarded, with accurate prevision, as a stronghold in the 
possession of a possible enemy. After much argument between - 
the Court of Directors and the Board of Control, the latter 
only of these two proposals was adopted. There would still 
be a titular King after Bahadur Shah’s death, but he would 
leave the city of Delhi. 

The title of Nawab of the Karnatik was also abolished ; 
and on the death of Baji Rao the ex-Peishwa in 18538, Dal- 
housie allowed his adopted son Dondu Pant, known to history 
as ‘“‘ the Nana Sahib,’’ to continue in possession of the Bithur 
rent-free estate ; but in view of the fact that by way of pension 
the ex-Peishwa had received the sum of more than £2,500,000 
sterling and had left a large fortune to his heirs, the Governor- 
General decided that no pension should be granted to Dondu 
Pant. 

Non-interference had long proved a dreary failure in the 
case of Oudh. Since the days of Cornwallis and Wellesley, 
in spite of undertakings to govern with a “ view to the happi- 
ness of their subjects,’’ the rulers of Oudh had proved an effete 
and incapable dynasty. To the British Government, however, 
they had been faithful allies and on occasion lenders of money. 
In the time of Lord Hastings they had been dignified by the 
name of Kings. But their domestic administration had gone 
from bad to worse. In 1831 Lord William Bentinck had 
warned the King that he stood in danger of being *‘ transmuted 


DALHOUSIE 125 


into a pensioner of State.’ In 1837 Lord Auckland had agreed 
with the King of his day that ‘* if, which God forbid, gross and 
systematic oppression, anarchy and misrule, should prevail 
within the Oudh dominions, such as to endanger seriously the 
public tranquillity, the British Government would appoint its 
own officers to carry out the necessary reforms.’’ But native 
forms of administration would be maintained ‘“‘ so as to facili- 
tate the restoration of these territories to the Sovereign of 
Oudh’’ at the right time. This treaty was unfortunately dis- 
allowed in London. In November 1847 Lord Hardinge pro- 
ceeded to Lucknow and warned the King that reforms must 
be accomplished within two years. Nothing was done. In 
1848 Colonel Sleeman, a warm friend of Indian princes, was 
appointed Resident at Lucknow, and reported of Oudh affairs 
in such terms as these: 

‘‘ Three-fourths of the officers commanding regiments are 
singers, eunuchs or their creatures. . . . They are men or boys 
who never saw their regiments, and never intend to see them 
or leave the Court, in whose favour they bask. . . . The troops 
upon which the collections of the revenue depend are among 
the worst enemies the people of the country have. They 
dare not face a formidable landowner (talukdar) or gang of 
robbers, but are for ever engaged in pillaging the farmers and 
cultivators of the land, and this with the knowledge of the 
Government and its officers. . . . The peasantry told me that 
rebels and robbers did spare them sometimes, when the de- 
struction of their houses and crops was not necessary for their 
purpose, but that the King’s troops, who could not breathe 
freely in the presence of such men, never spared them.” 

In 1854 General James Outram, ‘“‘the Bayard of India,” 
succeeded Sleeman. He confirmed the report of his prede- 
cessor, stating that corruption proceeded “ link by link from 
the highest authority to the lowest, the subordinate bribing 
his superior, and the whole weight at length falling on and 
crushing the ryot’’ (peasant). 

On June 18, 1855, Dalhousie wrote recommending that 
the King should be required to vest administration in the 
Company permanently, but should be allowed to retain his 
royal rank and title. After much deliberation in London, 
His Majesty Wajid Ali Shah was offered a treaty to this effect, 
reserving his jurisdiction, except in capital cases, in his palace 
and two parks; assuring him of large endowments and main- 
tenance for the collateral members of his family. If, however, 
he refused acceptance of the treaty, his kingdom would be 


126 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


annexed. He refused acceptance; and Oudh was annexed 
on February 13, 1856. The King proceeded with his family 
to Calcutta to appeal personally to the Governor-General, and 
if need be to England. On March 6, 1856, Dalhousie left India 
and so was unable to direct the settlement of the new province. 
It appears from a later note of Outram’s that the annexation 
was received with joy by thousands of the country people, who 
declared ‘‘ that now, for the first time during years of anarchy, 
they had a prospect of reaping the produce of the fields which 
they had ploughed and sown.” It cannot, however, be doubted 
that the numerous connections and dependents of the ex-Royal 
family, the nobles and many Oudh soldiers of the Company’s 
army took a widely different view of the measure. 

During the Crimean War Dalhousie was strongly pressed to 
surrender a considerable portion of his European garrison, 
He succeeded in preventing a reduction below 37,400 in days 
when ‘‘ royal regiments,’’ as distinct from Company’s, might 
be taken away at any time. His convictions on this important 
question are evidenced by a passage from a letter to the Presi- 
dent of the Board of Control, Sir Charles Wood, dated 
August 15, 1854: ‘* I cannot believe that the Queen’s Govern-. 
ment would diminish the comparatively small European force 
in India without any reference to the Government of the 
country. . . . Our Raj is safe from risk, but only while we are 
strong. We positively must not be weakened. We have not, 
lke the Colonies, anything to fall back upon. We must be 
strong, not against the enemy only, but against our population, 
and even against possible contingencies connected with our 
own native army.’’! This was at a time when a special 
circumstance was favourable; for, as he told another corre- 
spondent, all the Mussalman population in India, especially 
on the western frontier, were much pleased because England 
had taken the part of the Sultan of Turkey. But he realised 
that the British Government was keeping the peace between 
many mutually antagonistic sections and was protecting society 
from a numerically strong and lawless element. 

In 1854, through the agency mainly of Herbert Edwardes, 
Commissioner of Peshawar, Dalhousie concluded a treaty of 
friendship with Dost Muhammad which resulted in a further 
treaty signed on January 26, 1857, and largely determined 
the attitude of the Afghan Amir during the troubles of 1857, 
In 1857 too an agreement, concluded with the Khan of Khelat, 
secured Baluchistan. 

1 Lee Warner, Life of Dalhousie, vol. ii, pp. 274-5, 


DALHOUSIE 127 


Dalhousie championed and pioneered railways, telegraphs, 
canals, public works, improvements of all kinds. In 1852, 
before the passing of the last Act which renewed the East 
India Company’s charter, for such time only as Parliament 
pleased, he submitted his own views concerning the Government 
of India. Supreme control, he wrote, should still be vested 
in the Governor-General in Council. ‘‘ So vast a machine can 
never be safely worked unless there be unity of authority and 
of purpose in the direction of it and in the control of its re- 
sources.’ The Governor-General must be able to overrule his 
Council on emergency. 

The Legislature, however, must be reconstructed on a broader 
basis and must be differentiated from the Executive. The 
legal element must be strengthened. Proposals were formu- 
lated accordingly. One Indian gentleman should be added to 
the Legislative Council immediately. 

The Act, passed in 1853, adopted these proposals with the 
exception of the last. It further, on Dalhousie’s reeommenda- 
tion, embodied a long-needed reform by transferring the ad- 
ministration of the Province of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa from 
the Governor-General in Council to a Lieutenant-Governor. 

A sequel of the passing of this Act was a despatch from 
Sir Charles Wood on the subject of education, prescribing a 
scheme partly based on proposals received from Dalhousie, 
which was launched before his departure. <A system of ver- 
nacular and English education, on as practical lines as possible, 
from the primary school to the University, was to be intro- 
duced and worked by a department of public instruction in 
every province. English education had made considerable 
progress among the Hindu literary or clerical classes since 
1835, but had not filtered through to any wider circle. 

Dalhousie’s last year was clouded by the murder of a valu- 
able civil servant, by a brutal assault on a veteran officer 
committed by some Muslim fanatics, and by a bloody insur- 
rection of some hillmen. Some of his parting words breathed 
a strong “* presentiment of the eve.” 

‘*No prudent man having knowledge of Eastern affairs 
would venture to predict a long continuance of peace in India. 
... We have lately seen how, in the midst of us, insurrection 
may arise like an exhalation from the earth, and how cruel 
violence, worse than all the excesses of war, may be suddenly 
committed by men who, to the very day in which they broke 
out in their frenzy of blood, had been regarded as a simple 
timid race, not by the Government alone, but even by those 


128 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


who knew them best, who were dwelling among them and were 
their earliest victims. ... No prudent man will venture to 
give you assurance of continued peace. While we may rejoice 
that measures have been taken for opening new sources of 
wealth, I trust we still shall feel that all that we have yet done 
must be regarded as no more than the first beginnings of greater 
things to come. In regions so vast as these and among interests 
so various, all progress must needs be gradual.” 

The ‘‘ great Proconsul”’ left India in broken health and died 
on December 19, 1860, after four years of sickness and sorrow. 
To the last, in spite of the crash of the Mutiny, he preserved 
an unquenchable faith that after his death the final issues of 
his administration would conclusively vindicate his policy. 
He was impelled by circumstances to complete Wellesley’s 
work of expansion; but simultaneously he paved the way 
for a progressive India by developing the domestic policy of 
Bentinck. Certain of his measures raised up bitter enemies 
and contributed to precipitate a desperate struggle. But this 
struggle was largely a legacy from other circumstances; and 
when it came, the results of Dalhousie’s dealings with the 
Punjab and of his energy in improving internal communica- 
tions contributed very substantially to final victory and a 
peaceful settlement. 


XV 
THE MUTINY AND AFTER 


In February 1856 Lord Dalhousie was succeeded by Viscount 
Canning, ex-Postmaster-General, a man of high character and 
judicial temperament, who was to render noble service to India 
and England in a time of storm and stress. Before leaving 
London, at a dinner given in his honour by the Court of Direc- 
tors, Lord Canning had uttered words which were to prove 
prophetic: ‘“‘ We must not forget that in the sky of India, 
serene as it is, a small cloud may arise, at first no bigger than 
a man’s hand, but which growing larger and larger, may at 
last threaten to burst and overwhelm us with ruin.” 

He was early bidden from home to declare war on Persia. 
In 1855 the British minister had left Tehran in consequence 
of insulting treatment; and in 1856 the Persians had seized 
Herat. A British expedition was sent from Bombay to the 
Persian Gulf in October 1856 which, under the command of Sir 


THE MUTINY AND AFTER 129 


James Outram, captured Bushire and inflicted several defeats 
on the enemy. Peace was made in May 1857. The Shah 
agreed to relinquish Herat and desist from interference in 
Afghanistan. This agreement and a further treaty made early 
in 1857 with Dost Muhammad, as a sequel to the treaty of 
1855, procured Afghan neutrality during the dark days which 
were Impending. 

It was unfortunate that the annexation of Oudh had come 
too late to enable Dalhousie himself to select a corps of officers 
and a chief of high calibre for that province. Outram departed 
almost immediately after the annexation; and Henry Law- 
rence’s offer to leave Rajputana and serve in his place arrived 
after a selection had been made. Coverley Jackson, an expert 
revenue officer from the North-west Provinces, became Chief 
Commissioner, and proved himself devoid of the breadth of 
mind and sympathetic insight which the occasion required. 
Neither to the dependents of the ex-King’s Court nor to the 
Talukdars of the province did he extend kindly consideration. 
On the contrary, possessed by the creed that the latter were 
nothing more than grasping middlemen obnoxious to the 
cultivators, he aimed at concluding a revenue settlement 
which would oust them for ever from their estates. He was, 
however, dealing with men who could command large followings 
and were accustomed to hold their own. Oudh soon began to 
seethe with incipient revolt. Coverley Jackson wasted energy 
in quarrelling with his own lieutenants; and when at last, 
in March 1857, he gave place to Henry Lawrence, irretrievable 
mischief had been done. At this time there were not 1,000 
British soldiers in the whole province, which was ripe for 
revolt. 

We must now consider the mutiny of the Company’s Bengal 
army, which consisted mainly of high-class Hindus and Muham- 
madans from Oudh and the North-west Provinces, the very 
heart of the old Moghal Empire. The armies of the Madras 
and Bombay Presidencies were composed of more mixed 
material. Of the Madras army, one regiment only showed 
sympathy with the mutineers of 1857. Certain others begged, 
and begged successfully, ‘“‘to be granted an opportunity of 
proving their faithful attachment to the Government which 
had cherished them.’”? The Bombay army too remained loyal 
and contributed to the suppression of the rebellion. 

A leading cause of the Mutiny was the opinion of the Bengal 
sepoys that they were, in their own phrase, ‘the right arm, 
the hands and feet of the British Government.” The belief 


IN—9 


130 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


was natural, for of the whole Bengal army, 151,361 strong in 
May 1857, 22,698 men only were British, of whom 18,421 were 
stationed in the Punjab. The strength of the Company’s 
three armies was 238,000, of whom 88,000 only, including 
officers in native regiments, were British. In the vast area 
between the Punjab and the Bay of Bengal, the proportion of 
British troops was extremely small. The strategical points 
and most of the guns were in the hands of the native troops. 
In the words of John Lawrence, the strength of the sepoys 
consisted of their great numbers ‘‘ and their possession of most 
of our magazines, many of our forts, and all our treasuries, 
while our weakness consisted in the paucity of Huropean 
troops. Moreover, while the native regiments were kept up 
to their full strength, while our already overgrown native 
army was being gradually increased, it so happened that we 
had not been so weak for many years past in European troops 
as we were in 1857. ...It was a sense of overwhelming 
power acting upon men exasperated by a fancied wrong that 
led the Bengal army to mutiny.” } 

The ‘‘ fancied wrong’? was the incident of the ‘* greased 
cartridges.’’ This brought to a head discontent which had 
been growing since incidents in the Afghan War, had been 
fostered by the refusal of extra food-allowances to regiments 
serving in Sind, and by a general army order of 1856 requiring 
recruits in future enlisted to swear that they would go wher- 
ever their services might be required. Service of Hindus 
across the sea entailed exclusion from caste for indefinite 
periods. It happened too that events in Oudh had much 
annoyed numerous Oudh officers and men in the Bengal army. 
Lastly, the sepoys were moved by the alarm and unrest which 
was at that time penetrating the strongly conservative upper 
classes of Northern India. The clash of Western civilisation 
and education with Eastern customs and ideas was thus de- 
scribed by Sir James Outram: ? 

‘*'The abolition of infanticide, the introduction of vaccina- 
tion, the law to legalise the remarriage of Hindu widows, the 
promulgation through our colleges of the facts of astronomy, 
geology, etc., so opposed to the priestly cosmogonies of the 
country, the dissections practised in our medical schools, the 
attempts to establish female seminaries and to elevate the 
moral and social position of the female sex, with many other 
of our efforts to do good, were pressed upon the army and the 


1 Kaye and Malleson, History of the Mutiny, vol. v, p. 356. 
2 Lee Warner’s Dalhousie, vol. ii, p. 355. 


¢ 


THE MUTINY AND AFTER 131 


masses as so many deliberate assaults on the outworks both 
of Muhammadanism and of Hinduism. ... These efforts to 
prepare the way for a military mutiny and a popular insur- 
rection were much aided by the unsettled state of the public 
mind, which had been for some time looking forward with 
vague expectancy to some commotion in which a saviour, or 
Avatar, would appear. The greased cartridges precipitated 
the mutiny before it had been thoroughly organised, and before 
adequate steps had been taken for making the mutiny a first 
step towards a popular insurrection.” There can be no doubt 
that many Hindus and Muhammadans had conceived the idea 
that their religions were being deliberately undermined. The 
proclamation issued by the leaders of the revolt from Delhi 
and Lucknow appealed to all and sundry with the cry of re- 
ligions in peril. 

The general situation afforded a tempting field for exploiters, 
of whom there was no lack. There were the Emperor and his 
courtiers at Delhi, who knew that their days in the palace of 
Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb were numbered. There was the 
Maratha Brahman, the ** Nana Sahib,’’ burning to take revenge 
for the discontinuance of his adoptive father’s pension, egged 
on by Azimulla, recently his envoy to England, who visited 
the Crimea after a British repulse from Sebastopol and had 
returned to India convinced that British power was waning. 
There were the numerous dependents and adherents of the 
ex-King of Oudh. There was the Rani of Jhansi, a Maratha 
lady of great courage and tenacity of purpose, who resented, 
naturally enough, the annexation of her late husband’s princi- 
pality and the charging of her pension with lability for his 
debts. There were others who cherished grudges and worked 
for revenge. But the most reliable authorities 1 are not agreed 
as to whether or not any widely organised conspiracy preceded 
the military risings. | 

It seems obvious, at any rate, that the match which set 
fire to much combustible material was the belief of the Bengal 
sepoys and native officers that the Enfield rifle-cartridges 
which they were directed to bite had been smeared with the 
fat of the cow, sacred to Hindus, and the pig, unclean in the 
eyes of Muslims, for the purpose of converting both alike to 
Christianity. Unfortunately animal fat had been used at 
Woolwich for the purpose of making up the cartridges, but 
this fact was at first unknown and therefore denied in India. 
Every effort was subsequently made to explain and rectify the 

1 H.g. Outram and Lawrence. 


132 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


mistake. The order to bite the cartridges was rescinded ; the 
issue of greased cartridges was stopped; but the mischief 
was already accomplished. Fear, distrust and resentment had 
done their work. The sepoys were convinced that the de- 
struction of their caste and their religion was immediately 
contemplated. 

Space does not permit us to dwell upon the varied incidents 
of the Mutiny, which have often been described. Delhi, 
Lucknow, Cawnpore, Agra, Benares, Allahabad, Jhansi, have 
each their memories of that terrible struggle; and here and 
there in Upper India are other places, amid vast distances 
where handfuls of our race laid down their lives gallantly for 
England. But some features of the struggle call for comment 
here. 

Owing largely to the masterly and intrepid manner in which 
incipient insurrection among the Bengal regiments in the 
Punjab was met and crushed down at once by Robert Mont- 
gomery and Brigadier Corbett at Lahore, and by Herbert 
Edwardes, John Nicholson and Brigadier Sydney Cotton at 
Peshawar, the extent of the Mutiny was mainly limited to the 
North-west Provinces, of which Delhi then formed part, and 
to Oudh. The Punjab administration not only held its own 
but poured forth succour to Delhi and Lucknow. The Sikhs 
were not attracted by the prospect of a restored Muslim Empire 
and appreciated their experience of British rule. 

But it was men, far more than memories or reflections, that 
determined their attitude. Many Sikhs and Muslims of the 
Punjab, many fighters from the Frontier tribes, were ready 
to follow such leaders as Nicholson, Edwardes, Hodson and 
others, wherever they might go. Popular opinion, too, was 
strongly impressed by the resolute and courageous bearing of 
the Punjab authorities. ‘* As we rode down to the disarming ”’ 
(of the sepoy regiments), wrote Herbert Edwardes from 
Peshawar in May 1857, ‘“‘a very few chiefs and yeomen of 
the country -attended us, and I remember, judging from their 
faces, that they came to see what way the tide would turn. 
As we rode back, friends were thick as summer- flies, and 
levies began from that moment to come in.” 

Within the war-area the British, assisted by regiments and 
levies composed of various Punjab races, by Gurkhas from 
Nipal, by contingents from the Madras and Bombay armies 
and by a considerable number of adherents from the mutinous 
regiments, fought the majority of their old Bengal army, who 
were supported by all the predatory and riotous elements of 


THE MUTINY AND AFTER 133 


the population, and, after the revolt had achieved its initial 
success, by such Muslims as desired re-establishment of the 
Muslim Empire. The Emperor, once more enthroned at Delhi, 
appealed to political and religious sentiment, and many Muslims 
forgot that the grandfather of this same Bahadur Shah had 
been blinded, insulted and confined by his own countrymen 
when in 1803 Lord Lake delivered him from poverty and 
misery, and that, if he had become a puppet, it was his own 
people who had made him one. 

In Oudh the Talukdars generally, smarting from recent 
grievances, joined the rebels. 

Throughout the Mutiny area the country people fought 
zealously among themselves. Sir Alfred Lyall, then an Assist- 
ant Magistrate on the spot, has left vivid pictures of the state 
of affairs. He notes how everybody had been killing his 
neighbour; the money-lending traders had been stripped ; 
money, cattle, corn, clothes, everything had been taken. In 
1857 he wrote: ‘‘I can realise exactly what the old life of 
forage and plunder must have been. Every man does what 
is right in his own eyes; villages are fighting against villages, 
Hindu Rajputs against Mussulmans, and petty chiefs starting 
up in every direction. The Rajputs are the best fighters among 
the Hindus, but they generally get beaten by the Mahometans, 
whose worst enemies must confess that they are the most war- 
like of all. There is something in their religion that makes 
warriors of them.” } 

The behaviour of the ruling Princes generally does not 
support the argument that Dalhousie’s annexations had in- 
spired them with deep-rooted distrust. The young Nizam and 
his great minister Salar Jang, Maharaja Jaiaji Sindia of Gwalior 
and his premier Dinkar Rao, rendered service of inestimable 
value to the British cause.. The chiefs who ruled over the 
eighteen States of Rajputana were loyal with hardly any 
exception. The Gaekwar of Baroda, in the words of Lord 
Canning, ‘‘ identified himself with the British Government.” 
At Benares, the capital of orthodox Hinduism and the scene 
of a mutinous outbreak, the Raja of Benares, who, endowed 
with mere remnants of ruling powers, represented the former 
reigning family, ‘‘ never for one moment flinched from the 
loyal course he laid down for himself from the first moment.”’ ? 
In Maisur, temporarily under British administration, a promi- 
nent Indian statesman on August 21, 1857, when triumphant 


1 Sir Mortimer Durand, Life of Lyall, p. 69. 
2 Kaye and Malleson, History of the Mutiny, vol. vi, p. 45. 


134 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


proclamations were issuing from Delhi, thus addressed the 
British Resident: ‘‘ What good will their success be? ... 
Tyranny, despotism, plunder, ravage, cruelty, are only to be 
the rule. God forbid that any such results should ensue! We 
earnestly pray for the preservation of the British parental 
power in India, which has for nearly a century secured our 
persons and property, and has given us our liberty and our 
rights, and never interfered with our religions and customs.” ! 

There can be no doubt that the attitude of the great majority 
of the rulers of about 680 native States with which the East 
India Company had established protective alliances was one 
of loyalty to the paramount power. 

The frame-work of civil administration in British India 
outside the war-area stoutly withstood the strain of these 
critical months. The heroes of events within that area have 
their reward. Their names are held in perpetual remembrance. 
But there are also names, less known or unknown, to whom 
honour is also due, the names of Lord Elphinstone, Governor 
of Bombay, and Lord Harris, Governor of Madras, who denuded 
their Presidencies of troops to send succour elsewhere; the 
names of many civil officers in less prominent positions who 
kept order, collected revenue, suppressed minor disturbances 
amid constant scares, while over the border the guns were 
thundering. Some of these men in their day earned warm 
acknowledgments from Indians, as is instanced by the words 
used by the cotton-merchants of Bombay in presenting a 
valuable purse to Mr. Forjett, ex-superintendent of police, after 
his retirement from service, ‘*in token of strong gratitude for 
one whose almost despotic powers and zealous energy had so 
quelled the explosive forces of native society that they seem 
to have become permanently subdued.” 

While it lasted the restored Moghal rule was largely financed 
by forced loans and contributions exacted from the moneyed 
classes in Delhi. The King and his advisers were powerless 
to control the army. In January 1858 Bahadur Shah was 
brought to trial, and after two months of investigation was 
exiled to Rangoon, where he died at the age of eighty-seven 
in 1862. 

When the rebellion had been suppressed, the East India 
Company was finally abolished and the Crown took over the 
Government of India. For long the Company had been a 
commercial association as well as a governing agency. It 
had considered Indian affairs from a commercial rather than 

1 Lee Warner’s Dalhousie, vol. ii, p. 367. 


THE MUTINY AND AFTER 135 


a political standpoint. It had unwillingly accepted annexa- 
tions as accomplished facts, necessitated apparently by circum- 
stances, but regrettable and liable to lead to awkward complica- 
tions. But from the year 1834 the Company had ceased entirely 
to trade; and proud of the educative mission entrusted to it 
by Parliament, believing in the beneficial effects of British 
rule, in 1841 the Directors laid down the principle that no 
‘just or honourable accession of territory or revenue should 
be abandoned, although at the same time all existing claims 
of right must be scrupulously observed.’ This policy, inter- 
preted by Dalhousie, united with other circumstances to cause 
the Mutiny, but contributed means towards its suppression. 
A scapegoat, however, was required by Parliament; and, in 
any case, the Company’s work was done. It had accomplished 
an imposing and momentous transaction such as no other 
private corporation has ever at any time achieved. It trans- 
ferred to the Crown a splendid trust. 

Queen Victoria’s proclamation of November 1, 1858, declared 
that the rights, dignity and honour of Indian ruling princes 
were to be preserved as Her Majesty’s own, and that, so far 
as might be, all Her Majesty’s subjects, of whatever race and 
creed, were to be freely and impartially admitted to offices in 
the public service, the duties of which they might be qualified 
by their education, ability and integrity to discharge. Peace- 
ful industry was to be stimulated ; works of public utility and 
improvement were to be promoted; and the government was 
to be administered for the benefit of all Her Majesty’s subjects 
in India. 

The memorable words *“‘In their prosperity will be our 
strength, in their contentment our security, and in their grati- 
tude our great reward,” breathe the spirit of the great Queen 
herself, who requested her Prime Minister to remember in 
preparing the Proclamation that ‘“‘it is a female sovereign 
who speaks to more than a hundred millions of Eastern people, 
on assuming the direct government over them, and after a 
bloody war, giving them pledges, which her future reign is to 
redeem, and explaining the privileges of her Government. 
Such a document should breathe feelings of generosity, benevo- 
lence and religious toleration, and point out the privileges 
which the Indians will receive in being placed on an equality 
with the subjects of the British Crown, and the prosperity 
following in the train of civilisation.’ The proclamation 
appointed the noble-minded Lord Canning to be the first 
Viceroy and Governor-General of India. 


186 FROM PLASSEY TO 1861 


Three years afterwards, by the Indian Councils Act of 1861, 
an important step was taken in associating Indians with the 
Central and the Presidency Governments for legislative pur- 
poses, albeit to a very limited extent. The Governor-General’s 
Executive Council would in future consist of five members, 
three of whom had been in the India service of the Crown for 
two years at least, and of the Commander-in-Chief as an extra- 
ordinary member. For purposes of legislation the Governor- 
General could nominate not less than six or more than twelve 
members to his Council, not less than half of whom must be 
non-officials. Non-officials too would assist the Madras and 
Bombay Executive Councils in legislation and, with the approval 
of the Home Government, power could be given to the Lieu- 
tenant-Governors of Bengal, the North-west Provinces and 
the Punjab, who ruled without Executive Councils, to convoke 
small Legislative Councils. 


INDIA-1857._ |,, 


TS St 


fafiatioa of Colours se << Eel Names of Protected States thus-- 
10,000 Feet | \ » ! Y SOF WN q MYSORE. 
e000, «| \ ICAI—CCR?E iS Limits of Territory under British Rule 
—= ‘ \Gie = : or Protection indicated by Red line 
Natural Scale, I: 20,000,000 


English Miles 
: =a 4 ; 6 100 200 ado 
Long. East 80 of Greenwich 85 
W & AK. Johnston Limited Edinburgh & London. 


a Bil Aer ete ’ 
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PART TTI—FROM 18¢1 TO 1914 


XVI 
RECONSTRUCTION 


Ir Dalhousie accelerated the great clash of ideas which con- 
tributed largely to produce the Mutiny, he also prepared the 
way for the period of reconstruction which followed. He 
founded the Department of Public Works. ‘‘ He opened the 
Ganges Canal. He gave the great impulse from the India 
side to the overland route, and to steam communication via 
the Red Sea with England. He cut the first sod of an Indian 
railway. Under his orders the first line of electric telegraph 
posts across India was set up. His engineers metalled a 
longer mileage of roads than had been constructed by the four 
preceding Governor-Generals. His Revenue officers settled the 
assessment of the soil and recorded the land-rights of the 
people throughout a larger area. He introduced cheap postage 
into India. On the system of Public Instruction inaugurated 
during his rule the education of India still rests.’ + This 
system was established gradually during the viceroyalty of 
Lord Canning, who, in spite of stress and storm, adhered 
steadily to his predecessor’s progressive policy. Within the 
years which immediately followed the Mutiny the India of 
modern times took shape. In its development British capital 
played a large part, financing the railways and shipping, the 
main solvents of the barriers of ages. 

But before we survey the chief events of twenty years, we 
must examine briefly the system of administration which 
prevailed throughout that period. | 

The Secretary of State possessed far more power than had 
ever fallen to the lot of the President of the defunct Board 
of Control. Through the medium of the electric telegraph he 
could exercise wide and constant supervision over the affairs 
of India. He had no Court of Directors to consult or humour. 

1 Hunter, India under the Queen. 
137 


» 


138 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


He was the agent of Parliament, who through him, and no 
longer through the periodical inquests which were held before 
renewals of the Company’s charter, controlled administration 
in India. He was assisted by a Council of experts which 
lacked the representative character of the Court of Directors 
and could be overruled with impunity. 

Government in India itself was centred in the hands of 
the Viceroy. His Executive Council, which, as explained, was 
expanded for legislative purposes, was ordinarily a Cabinet 
which on emergency might be overruled by its chief. While 
each of its members was in charge of a separate department, 
he was assisted by a Secretary who once a week personally 
laid papers relating to important cases in that department 
before the Viceroy and received instructions thereon. Differ- 
ences of opinion between the Viceroy and a Member were re- 
ferred to the full Council. At all times the personality and 
capacity of the Viceroy constituted a factor of very great im- 
portance. 

Two provinces, Madras and Bombay, retaining the old title 
of Presidency, remained under Governors assisted by small 
official Executive Councils. Three provinces, the Punjab, 
the North-west and Bengal, were under Lieutenant-Governors. 
Four provinces, Oudh, the Central Provinces, Burma, Assam, 
were under Chief Commissioners. Later on the Lieutenant- 
Governor of the North-west Provinces became ew-officio Chief 
Commissioner of Oudh. 

The major provinces are in fact different countries where 
largely different languages are spoken. Each province was 
then, and is now, divided into districts which in all provinces 
but Madras are combined, in groups from four to six, into 
divisions under Commissioners. The average size of a district 
is 4,430 square miles, but many are much larger. Each district 
was in those days in charge of an officer of the Indian Civil 
Service, who was assisted by a staff of Indian deputy magistrates 
and generally by a joint magistrate drawn from his own Service. 
The district officer communicated with the provincial Govern- 
ment through his adviser and superintendent, the Commis- 
sioner. His usual title, *‘ Collector and Magistrate,” expressed 
his dual capacity. He directed the revenue and tax-collecting 
staff; he also exercised supervision over the conduct of magis- 
terial business.and was responsible for order and good govern- 
ment. He was supported by a small force of Indian police 
under a British superintendent. Other of his duties were to 
foster education, to combat epidemics with the assistance of 


RECONSTRUCTION 139 


a British civil surgeon and that officer’s subordinate staff and 
to do all that he could for the welfare of his people. 

Judicial work in each district was in the charge of a judge, 
also an officer of the Civil Service, who tried the more serious 
cases, heard appeals from subordinate magistrates and civil 
judges and belonged to a judicial hierarchy presided over by 
a High Court in the older provinces and by a Judicial Commis- 
sioner in the younger. In 1862 Penal and Criminal Procedure 
Codes for all British India came into force, and the Muham- 
madan element finally disappeared from the Criminal Law. A 
Civil Procedure Code followed. An Act of 1861 had substituted 
High Courts for the old (King’s) Supreme! and (Company’s) 
Chief Courts, which were thus amalgamated. The High 
Courts were presided over by barrister Chief Justices, and were 
composed of judges, who were partly barristers and partly 
civil servants. 

District administration was thus entirely guided by the 
Civil Service, the older members of which had been trained at 
the extinct East India Company’s College of Haileybury, 
while the younger had obtained their appointments after 
success in open competitive examinations held in London. 
Indian candidates were then few and rarely successful. In the 
newly annexed provinces, the Punjab, Oudh, Burma, the 
Central Provinces, the administrative staff was partly com- 
posed of military officers. 

In pre-Mutiny British India, when there were no railways 
or telegraphs, when roads were few and bad, when during the 
rainy season large areas of country were covered with un- 
broken sheets of water, Local Governments and district 
officers were of necessity accorded a large measure of initiative 
and independence. But within the period now under review, 
as means of communication multiplied and extended, authority 
eradually centralised. Writing and reporting increased ; inde- 
pendence diminished; less time remained for that friendly 
intercourse with and close study of the people which had been 
the tradition of British administration. As a rule, however, 
supervision was considerate ; and the work of district officers, 
if more laborious, was still most interesting. In very few 
districts was there a military garrison. The support of units 
isolated among thronging congeries of races and sects was 
popular respect for the power and kindly purposes of the 
British Raj. 


1 Supreme Courts had been established at Madras in 1800, and at Bombay 
in 1823. 


140 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


One-third of India was covered by those States which had 
been, in the words of Lord Canning, *‘ breakwaters in the storm 
which would otherwise have swept over us in one great wave.” 
In their case the doctrine of lapse was completely abolished. 
Lord Canning issued adoption sanads, or grants, addressed to 
the more important chiefs, assuring Hindus that in future 
adoptions would be recognised and confirmed, and Muslims 
that, on failure of natural heirs, any succession to the govern- 
ment of their States which might be permitted by Muhammadan 
law would be upheld. The effect of these sanads extended 
far beyond the recipients, for the principle now recognised 
thereby was of general application. Only disloyalty and 
breach of previous treaties or recorded obligations could dis- 
turb the new engagements. The Government of India, how- 
ever, reserved a right of interposition and assumption of 
temporary charge of a State should serious abuses threaten 
anarchy therein and necessitate such a step. Rulers of States 
were expected to co-operate with the suzerain power in postal 
arrangements and in matters relating to railway and telegraph 
lines. 

Before Lord Canning’s departure, and in pursuance of the 
scheme of State-education laid down in 1854, examining Uni- 
versities were established at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras on 
the model of the University of London. The territories of 
British Burma, Tenasserim and Pegu were consolidated into 
one charge and placed under a Chief Commissioner. The 
strength of the British Army in India was fixed at 76,000, and 
that of the Indian Army at 120,000. Lord Canning had 
achieved much when, utterly worn out, he returned to England 
to die there three months later. But he will always be most 
eratefully remembered for his patience and courage in the 
darkest hours of 1857, and for the noble and merciful spirit 
which he consistently showed throughout the suppression of 
the rebellion. He was succeeded by Lord Elgin, who died 
shortly afterwards ; and Lord Elgin was followed by Sir John 
Lawrence of Punjab fame. 

Shortly after arrival Lawrence was confronted by the Orissa 
famine, resulting from the failure of the rains of 1865 and the 
consequent destruction of the rice-crops in a province where, 
from lack of adequate communications, the people were largely 
shut up between pathless jungles and impracticable sea. The 
Bengal Government failed to realise that in such circumstances 
private enterprise could not effect much. At first remedial 
measures were inadequate and then expenditure was wasteful. 


RECONSTRUCTION 141 


The whole famine administration was discreditable to the 
provincial and central governments. 

It impressed on the Viceroy the meaning of good communica- 
tions ; and he zealously pushed on railways, canals and public 
works. British capital poured into the country; commerce 
developed; schools and colleges grew and multiplied; peace 
reigned in British territory and Native States. In the former 
much attention was paid to the registration of the rights and 
tenures of the agricultural classes, to the adjustment of the 
relations between landlords and tenants. It was thoroughly 
realised that the rural population constitutes 90 per cent. of 
the people of India, paying by far the greater portion of the 
revenue and manning thearmy. Canning had already legislated 
for landlords and tenants in Bengal. Lawrence had, through- 
out his whole career, been the champion of the peasants. 
Tenant-right in Oudh and the Punjab received his earnest 
attention now and became the subject of legislation. Exten- 
sion of Cornwallis’s permanent settlement to provinces other 
than Bengal was debated and eventually negatived. Temporary 
settlements, whereby assessments of land revenue were revised 
at fixed periods, were considered better for all concerned. 

Affairs in Afghanistan again claimed attention. A trouble- 
some frontier campaign against the Wahabi Muslim fanatics 
had just been brought to a close when Lawrence assumed 
office. Later on he was compelled to despatch a large force 
to deal with the tribes of the Black Mountain. But behind 
the wild races of the frontier were the Afghans. Dost Muham- 
mad had died in 18638, after adding Herat to his kingdom. A 
prolonged struggle followed between his son Shere Ali, two 
other sons, and a grandson afterwards famous as Amir Abdul 
Rahman. In 1868 Shere Ali established his supremacy. Abdul 
Rahman sought refuge in Russian territory. Shere Ali was 
anxious to strengthen his position by a British alliance; but 
Lawrence was averse from any such entanglement and recom- 
mended to London a policy of goodwill towards the de facto 
ruler of Afghanistan, whoever that might be, coupled with 
negotiations with Russia for the demarcation of British and 
Russian spheres of influence. Shere Ali’s anxiety for a British 
alliance was partly dictated by fear and distrust of Russia. 
In 1865 that Power had annexed Tashkent; in 1867 she had 
appointed a Governor-General of Turkistan; in 1868 she had 
captured Samargand. Her further advance seemed certain. 
In 1869, before a policy toward Afghanistan had been deter- 
mined, Lawrence left India, after years of noble service, and 


142 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


was succeeded by the Earl of Mayo. Lawrence was raised 
to the peerage on his return to England. 

Lord Mayo had been Chief Secretary for Ireland before he 
was selected by Disraeli to be Viceroy of India. He was a man 
of fine presence, much ability, unbounded energy and lofty 
character. He lost no time in continuing negotiations with 
Shere Ali, whom he met at Ambala. He was instructed by the 
Liberal Government, which had by that time come into power 
in England, to accord moral support only to the Amir, but to 
say that gifts of money, arms and ammunition might follow 
whenever the British Government thought fit. That Govern- 
ment would ‘‘ view with severe displeasure’’ any attempt to 
oust him from his throne. Shere Ali was captivated by the 
Viceroy’s genial personality and was satisfied for the time. 
Negotiations with Russia were started in London; and an 
understanding was reached as to the integrity of Afghanistan. 
General progress was rapid under Lord Mayo, who effected 
considerable financial reform, organised a statistical survey, 
instituted a Department of Agriculture and Commerce and 
caused the first census of India to be undertaken. But, in the 
prime of a beneficent career, he was assassinated by a Pathan 
convict at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands penal settlement. 

He was succeeded by Lord Northbrook, an able financier, 
who took advantage of a period of highly prosperous trade 
which followed on the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 to ease 
taxation. He held that, in the words of the late Lord Cromer, 
‘the one thing that the Oriental does appreciate is low taxa- 
tion.’?? He lowered the rate of import duties from 7} to 5 
per cent.; but although zealously pressed by the Liberal 
Government in power to go further in the direction of free 
trade, he refused to comply. He abolished all export duties 
except those on rice, oil, indigo and lac. A large annual 
surplus of foodstuffs was now raised for exportation, as also 
were other and more profitable crops than foodstuffs. Even 
in 1830 the exports of India had been valued at no more than 
£11,000,000. Fifty years later cultivation had been largely 
extended, and Indian produce alone, reared by Indian husband- 
men and sold to foreign nations, was valued at £66,000,000 
sterling. 

In June 1873 Khiva fell to the Russians, and in the follow- 
ing month an envoy from Shere Ali arrived at Simla who 
pleaded for a defensive alliance. Northbrook favoured pro- 
mising help in the event of unprovoked attack on Afghanistan, 


1 Strachey, Adventure of Living, p. 378. 


RECONSTRUCTION 143 


but was unable to procure sanction from Gladstone’s Govern- 
ment to this course. In 1874, however, a general election 
_ placed a Conservative Government in power. Disraeli became 
Premier and Lord Salisbury became Secretary of State for 
India. The Viceroy was urged to persuade the Amir to receive 
a British agent at Kabul, instructions against which Lord 
Northbrook and his whole Council strongly protested. Lord 
Salisbury persisted. Lord Northbrook was convinced that 
Shere Ali would strongly object to such a proposal and that 
the real solution was to establish ‘‘ a frank and clear under- 
standing with Russia as to the relative position of British and 
Russian interests in Asia.’’ He was out of sympathy with 
Disraeli and Lord Salisbury, and had previously resented 
pressure to abolish all cotton duties, holding that the revenue 
therefrom could not be surrendered and that the home Govern- 
ment were attempting ‘“‘to weaken the authority’’ of his 
Government. He resigned, and was succeeded by the Earl 
of Lytton. 

Lord Lytton came out, empowered to offer Shere Ali the 
alliance for which he had previously petitioned in vain, on 
condition that a British Resident should be stationed at Herat. 
His first step was to ask the Amir to receive a complimentary 
mission which would inform him of the assumption by Queen 
Victoria of the title of Empress of India. Shere Ali refused on 
the ostensible ground that such a mission was unnecessary, but, 
according to the British Muslim agent at Kabul, really because 
he feared for the safety of the mission and wished to avoid 
being also pressed to receive a Russian mission. 

The course of subsequent negotiations was disastrous. Lord 
Lytton, aware of correspondence between Shere Ali and the 
Governor-General of Turkestan, made little allowance for the 
former’s genuine suspicions and real difficulties. The Amir was 
alarmed by various circumstances, including an agreement of 
1876 between the British and the Khan of Khelat in Baluchi- 
stan, which allowed the former to occupy Quetta. He was 
persuaded by a Russian envoy, who arrived in Kabul uninvited, 
to conclude a treaty of alliance with Russia. The Russian left 
soon afterwards. But a British mission had been despatched 
and was politely turned back from Ali Musjid at the mouth of 
the Khaibar Pass. The Viceroy, declaring that it had been ~ 
** forcibly repulsed,” was allowed to send an ultimatum threaten- 
ing invasion unless within a fixed time a suitable apology were 
offered and consent were given to the reception of a permanent 
British mission in Afghanistan. 


144 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


The time-limit expired. A belated reply accepted the 
mission but offered no apology; and on the day after the 
expiry of the ultimatum the Viceroy set his army in motion. 
His policy had been headstrong. The action of Russia had 
been impelled by Britain’s attitude in the Russo-Turkish War. 
But now the Berlin Conference was over, and the London 
Cabinet had remonstrated with Russia regarding Afghanistan, 
cautioning Lord Lytton not to hurry in sending the mission 
and not to despatch it by the Khaibar. He was to wait until 
the home Government had heard from Russia. He paid small 
attention to these directions, and thus provoked the “* coup ”’ 
which precipitated war. 

Little resistance was made by the Afghan troops. The 
Amir himself, failing to obtain any assistance from Russia, 
fled into exile and died in February 1879 worn out by disease 
and trouble. In May 1879 the new Amir, his son Yakub Khan, 
by the Treaty of Gandamak, accepted the British demands. 
But, in the following September, the British envoy at Kabul, 
Sir Louis Cavagnari, was murdered with all his escort; and 
then the real war began. It was marked by desperate fighting 
with the Afghan tribal levies, by the fine generalship of Sir 
Donald Stewart and Sir Frederick, afterwards Lord, Roberts, 
by the victory of Ayub Khan, a son of Shere Ali, over General 
Burrows at Maiwand, by Roberts’s famous march from Kabul 
to Kandahar and subsequent victory over Ayub Khan. Yakub 
Khan had abdicated ; and the war ended, after Lord Lytton’s 
departure, in the establishment of Abdul Rahman, nephew 
of Shere Ali and grandson of Dost Muhammad, as Amir of 
Afghanistan. He was to have no foreign relations with any 
Power except the British, but was not to be required to receive 
a British agent at Kabul. The British Government would 
assist him to repel the unprovoked aggression of any foreign 
- Power. 

It is obvious that arrangements of this kind could long 
before have been made with the unfortunate Shere Ali, who 
was naturally soured and bewildered by the vagaries of English 
party government. It also seems probable that, even when 
he had allied himself with Russia, patience, pressure on Russia 
and determination on the part of the Viceroy to avoid war if 
possible, would have dissolved the alliance without an appeal 
to arms.!. After the general election of 1880 the Liberals re- 
turned to office; and Lord Lytton was succeeded by the 
Marquis of Ripon. 


1 See Buckle, Life of Disraeli, vol. vi, ch. x. 


RECONSTRUCTION 145 


Karly in the Viceroyalty of Lord Lytton the Government 
was faced with a severe famine which extended over most of 
Southern India, and in conjunction with previous famines led 
to the decision that such calamities could no longer be dealt 
with empirically, as they occurred on failure of particular 
monsoons. Preventive and anticipatory measures were now 
devised, which included arrangements for the preparation of 
programmes of relief works and for the giving of doles to im- 
potent paupers. A surplus too of £1,300,000 over the ordinary 
revenue, which was to be used partly for provision of reserve 
resources and partly for the construction of railways and 
canals through precarious districts, was budgeted for. The 
money was to be raised by new cesses on land and other taxa- 
tion. From these arrangements was elaborated the present 
organised system of famine relief. Lord Lytton’s Government 
also carried through important fiscal reforms, and, in deference 
to a resolution of the House of Commons, removed import 
duties from the coarser kinds of cotton cloth. In order to 
effect the removal, the Viceroy overrode the majority of his 
Executive Council, who regarded the measure as proposed in 
order to retain the political support of the Lancashire cotton 
manufacturers, 

Lytton’s Government founded a ‘“‘ Statutory Civil Service,”’ 
which was intended to afford a new door for Indians who 
wished to enter the higher ranks of the public service. Indians 
could indeed compete in London; but few did so, and fewer 
were successful. The Statutory Civil Service proved a failure. 
It did not attract suitable candidates and was abolished after 
eight years of trial. 

The constant endeavours of some vernacular newspapers, 
especially in Calcutta, to excite racial hatred against the 
Government led to the passing of an Act in 1878 for the better 
control of the vernacular press. The Act was denounced by 
Mr. Gladstone, then in opposition, and was repealed in 1882 
by Lord Ripon’s Government. The press proceeded on its way 
- unchecked by any special law. 

On January 1, 1877, Her Majesty Queen Victoria, in recog- 
nition of the transfer of government made in 1858, was at 
Delhi proclaimed Empress of India. As in 1858, so also in 
1877, there was an earnest and sympathetic note in Her Majesty’s 
message which evoked warm response. India had already been 
brought into touch with the Royal Family of England through 
the visit of King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, during 
the viceroyalty of Lord Northbrook. Her Majesty had noted 


IN—10 


146 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


‘“‘ with heartfelt satisfaction’? the reception accorded to her 
son, and earnestly trusted “that from the highest to the 
humblest all her Indian subjects might feel that under her 
rule the great principles of liberty, equity and justice were 
secured to them; and that to promote their happiness, to add 
to their prosperity and advance their welfare were the ever- 
present aims and objects of her Empire.” 


XVII 
THE BEGINNING OF POLITICS 


In 1880 the policy of Government in India was based upon 
three principles—precaution against foreign invasion, main- 
tenance of internal peace, promotion of general progress. The 
pursuit of these objectives in a sub-continent equal in size to 
Kurope excluding Russia, multitudinous in its traditions, lan- 
guages and races, had for years engrossed and was engrossing 
the strenuous energies of a company of British administrators 
and soldiers, small indeed in proportion to the hundreds of 
millions concerned. It has often been laid to the charge of 
these men that they sought efficiency too zealously. Their 
goal was simply that order and harmonious progress which alone 
can ever produce a better life for all classes in India. 

But among the lawyers, the journalists, the professors, the 
schoolmasters, among the literary and clerical classes, Western 
education was spreading and new political ideas were germinat- 
ing. ‘* The spread of education,’ wrote the new Viceroy to the 
Secretary of State (who like himself was a Gladstonian Liberal), 
‘“the existing and increasing influence of a free press, the 
substitution of legal for discretionary administration, the pro- 
eress of railways, telegraphs, etc., the easier communication 
with Europe, and the more ready influx of European ideas, are 
beginning to produce a marked effect on the people; new ideas 
are springing up; new aspirations are being called forth; the 
power of public opinion is growing and strengthening day by 
day; and a movement has begun which will advance with 
ereater rapidity and force every year.’”’ Lord Ripon considered 
that this movement should be met not by “‘ a representation 
of the people of a European democratic type,’’ but by measures 
which would gradually train ‘‘the best, most intelligent and 
most influential men in the community to take an interest and 


THE BEGINNING OF POLITICS 147 


active part in the management of their local affairs.’ 1 He 
took action in this direction. 

Local funds committees, containing a small elected element, 
had existed in districts for many years; but their sphere of 
work was very limited. They had practically served as ad- 
visers to district officers, in certain minor matters. When, 
however, in 1881, under a scheme of financial decentralisation 
initiated by Lord Mayo, the contracts between the provincial 
and central Governments for the allotment of revenue and 
expenditure came up for revision, the Governor-General-in- 
Council announced that the question of local self-government 
must be seriously taken up. Provincial Governments must 
consider the devolution of certain departments of administra- 
tion from provincial to local control, as well as from Imperial 
to provincial. The extension of the elective element on local 
bodies must also be arranged for. 

In the following year the central Government laid down the 
lines on which local self-governing bodies in the shape of dis- 
trict and municipal Boards, composed mainly of elected mem- 
bers, would forthwith be established. Functions and funds 
would be assigned to these bodies in connection with the care 
of primary schools, dispensaries, vaccination, the public health, 
the upkeep of roads and similar matters. Lord Ripon desired 
that they should be watched, and when necessary, checked, 
from without, by district officers. But here he met with con- 
siderable resistance from official opinion, both in the Council 
of the Secretary of State and in India, the opposition holding 
that the district officers should guide the new bodies from 
within. Eventually Acts were passed for the various pro- 
vinces which permitted the Boards, constituted on the lines 
indicated, to elect their own chairman only where the Govern- 
ment did not consider that circumstances required the appoint- 
ment of a nominated chairman, generally the district officer. 

The discussion which preceded this legislation was syn- 
chronous with the [bert Bill controversy, so named after Mr. 
(now Sir) Courtenay Ibert, then Legal Member of the Viceroy’s 
Council. The question here at issue was raised by a note 
forwarded to the Government of Bengal by a Hindu civil 
officer, who represented the anomalous position in which 
Indian members of the Civil Service were placed by existing 
laws, which limited the jurisdiction to be exercised over EKuro- 
pean British subjects outside Calcutta to judicial officers who 
were themselves European British subjects. This note led to 

1 Wolf, Life of Ripon, vol. ii, ch, xix. 


148 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


the publication of proposals by the Government of India, the 
effect of which would have been to remove from the Criminal 
Procedure Code all judicial qualifications based merely on race 
distinctions. The proposals were considered to imperil the 
liberties of British non-officials and met with fierce European 
opposition. After being under consideration for over a year 
and exciting keen racial animosity, they were largely with- 
drawn. 

Lord Ripon consoled himself for this disastrous fiasco with 
the reflection that his local self-government arrangements 
were the measures that really mattered, as they were designed 
to anticipate “‘ the great coming difficulty of the future,’ which 
clearly would be adequate satisfaction of natural and growing 
aspirations. It was also desirable to supplement these initial 
efforts by improving and extending education, for it was 
‘* politically dangerous to develop a small class of highly edu- 
cated natives addressing themselves to ignorant and unculti- 
vated masses.” + The Government therefore appointed an 
Educational Commission which was instructed to examine 
various problems, among others how best to stimulate private 
effort and to substitute private schools aided from State funds 
for State schools. It was desirable that the well-to-do should 
put their hands into their pockets and pay a fair price for the 
education of their sons. More money would then be available 
for the spreading of primary education among the many millions 
who were living with their minds entirely uncultivated. The 
Government also wished to entrust educational responsibilities 
increasingly to local bodies. The Commission reported, after 
prolonged enquiries, in favour of a devolution of control which 
was carried far in Bengal, with the result that the quality of 
the secondary education imparted gradually deteriorated. 

Lord Ripon was succeeded by Lord Dufferin in November 
1884. The attention of the new Viceroy, who was an accom- 
plished statesman and diplomatist, was immediately engaged 
by negotiations with Russia regarding the Russo-Afghan 
frontier. These, after one critical phase, terminated happily, 
owing largely to the robust common sense of Amir Abdul 
Rahman, who had no desire to see Afghanistan a battleground 
between two great Empires. At a crisis in the negotiations 
various ruling princes tendered their services to defend the 
Empire; and from such offers sprang eventually the Imperial 
Service troops, military contingents recruited in the Native 
States, inspected by British officers, available for service under 

1 Wolf, Life of Ripon, vol. ii, p. 114. 
g 


THE BEGINNING OF POLITICS 149 


the supreme Government when placed at its disposal by the 
chiefs concerned. 

On January 1, 1886, Upper Burma, a large but scantily- 
peopled area, was annexed, after a brief war, caused by much 
Burmese provocation and Burmese negotiations with France. 
The pacification and settlement of the country, which has 
since made rapid progress, were effected satisfactorily after 
two years of harassing guerrilla warfare. 

Pregnant events of Lord Dufferin’s viceroyalty were the 
earliest annual meetings of the Indian National Congress. 
The first of these took place at Bombay on December 28, 29 
and 80, 1885. They were attended by seventy-two delegates, 
mostly lawyers, schoolmasters or journalists, collected, some- 
times after considerable effort, from cities or large towns in 
various provinces. The only Muhammadans present were two 
Bombay attorneys. The prospectus of the new movement, 
which was largely inspired by Mr. Allan Octavian Hume, an 
ex-civil servant, had expressed the hope that the conferences 
would form ‘‘ the germ of a native Parliament.” The President 
of the meetings, Mr. W. Bonerjee, Standing Counsel to Govern- 
ment in Calcutta, proclaimed that one of the objects of the 
association was ‘‘ the fuller development and consolidation of 
those sentiments of national unity that had their origin in 
Lord Ripon’s memorable reign.” They were thoroughly loyal 
to Britain, which had given them order, railways, ‘“‘ above all 
the inestimable benefit of Western education,” but they desired 
that the people should take their “‘ natural and legitimate’’ 
share in the government. 

Various resolutions were passed, one demanding expansion 
of the Legislative Councils and admission of members elected 
by such organised bodies as municipal and district boards. 
Thus enlarged, the Councils should be able to interpellate the 
Executive on all administrative matters. Another resolution 
advised the establishment of a standing committee of the 
House of Commons which would receive and consider formal 
protests lodged by majorities of the new Legislative Councils 
against the exercise by the Executive Government of the power 
which would be vested in it of overruling the decisions of such 
majorities. A third resolution recommended simultaneous 
examinations in India and England for admission to the higher 
or covenanted Civil Service. 

The next Congress met a year later at Calcutta and was 
attended by 440 delegates, of whom 230 came from Bengal. 
Only thirty-three were Muhammadans. So far the movement 


150 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


was essentially Hindu and was confined to the Western-edu- 
cated classes. The aristocracy, the territorial and martial 
classes, the masses, stood apart from it. 

The shop-keeping classes, it was complained by a Congress 
writer, cared for no change in a form of Government which 
both prevented others from robbing them and afforded them 
ample opportunities for enriching themselves. Muhammadan 
abstention was due to the attitude of certain Muhammadan 
leaders, notably Saiyid Ahmad, a man of high calibre and great 
personal force, who strongly declared for a policy of trust in 
the British Government and was unable to see how any elec- 
toral system could fail to place Muhammadans in a hopeless 
minority. 

Some advocates of the new movement were anxious to pro- 
mote simultaneously social innovations among Hindus. ‘‘ You 
cannot,’’ argued the most strenuous of these, Mr. Justice 
Ranade, “‘ have a good social system when you find yourself 
low in the scale of political rights, nor can you be fit to exercise 
political rights and privileges unless your social system is 
based on reason and justice.’ The main objectives of the 
social reformers were removal of the despotism of caste, which 
condemns many millions of Hindus to be regarded as untouch- 
able, and in some places unapproachable, by their higher- 
born co-religionists ; mitigation at least of the seclusion of 
women, and promotion of female education; abandonment 
of *the enforced lifelong celibacy of Hindu widows, however 
young; stoppage of premature and necessarily injurious 
marriage. 

The strength of social conservatism is evident from the fact 
that in 1891 an inadequate remedial measure in the shape of 
an Act raising the age of consent from ten to twelve was made 
law in the teeth of very strong Hindu opposition. 

National social conferences were started in 1887, but soon 
languished, as Congress leaders dared not antagonise Conserva- 
tive sentiment. They revived, however, later on under 
religious and political stimulus. But the obstacles to social 
reform are of the most solid kind. It has lately lost a fearless 
friend in H.H. the late Maharaja of Kolhapur. 

In December 1888 Lord Dufferin was relieved by Lord 
Lansdowne, who had previously been Governor-General of 
Canada. Before departing he had framed proposals for liberal- 
ising the Legislative Councils, and had appointed a Commis- 
sion to investigate the possibilities of opening the public services 
more widely to Indians. The recommendations of this Com- 


THE BEGINNING OF POLITICS 151 


mission were generally adopted, but were pronounced unsatis- 
fying by the Congress leaders, whose December oratorical 
festivals were rapidly gaining in popularity among the Western- 
educated classes. 

Lord Dufferin’s preposals for reforming the Legislative 
Councils were based on the principle that while it was desirable 
that the central and provincial Governments should take 
counsel with prominent Indians, the final decision in all im- 
portant questions, the paramount control of policy, must rest 
with the Government. No administration could remain at 
the head of affairs among the various Indian nationalities which 
did not possess sufficient power to carry out whatever measures 
or policy it might consider to be for the public interest. The 
Viceroy drew a vivid picture of the India of his day which 
explains the cautious nature of his proposals : 

‘“ This population is composed of a large number of distinct 
nationalities, professing various religions, practising diverse 
rites, speaking different languages, while many of them are 
still further separated from one another by discordant preju- 
dices, by conflicting source of usages and even antagonistic 
material interests. But perhaps the most patent characteristic 
of our Indian cosmos is its division into two mighty political 
communities as distant from each other as the poles asunder 
in their religious faith, their historical antecedents, their social 
organisation and their natural aptitudes. 

‘*On the one hand, the Hindus, numbering 190,000,000, 
with their polytheistic beliefs, their temples adorned with 
images and idols, their veneration for the sacred law, their 
elaborate class distinctions, and their habits of submission to 
successive conquerors; on the other hand, the Muhammadans, 
a nation of 50,000,000, with their monotheism, their iconoclastic 
fanaticism, their animal sacrifices, their social equality and their 
remembrance of the days when, enthroned at Delhi, they reigned 
supreme from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. . . . To these 
must be added a host of minor nationalities—most of them 
numbering millions—almost as widely differentiated from one 
another by ethnological or political distinctions as are the 
Hindus from the Muhammadans, such as the Sikhs, with their 
warlike habits and traditions and their enthusiastic religious 
beliefs—the Rohillas, the Pathans, the Assamese—the Baluchees, 
and other wild and martial tribes on our frontiers—the hillmen 
dwelling in the folds of the Himalayas—our subjects in Burma, 
Mongol in race and Buddhist in religion—non-Aryan peoples 
in the centre and south of India—and the enterprising Parsees, 


152 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


with their rapidly developing manufactures and commercial 
interests. 

‘* Again, amongst these numerous communities may be found, 
at one and the same moment, all the various stages of civilisa- 
tion through which mankind has passed from the prehistoric 
ages to the present day. At one end of the scale we have the 
naked savage hillman; and at the other, the Europeanised 
native gentleman, with his English costume, his advanced 
democratic ideas, his Western philosophy and his literary 
culture; while between the two lies layer upon layer or in 
close juxtaposition, wandering communities; collections of 
undisciplined warriors, with their blood feuds, their clan 
organisation and loose tribal government; feudal chiefs and 
barons, with their retainers, their seignorial jurisdiction and 
their medizval notions; and modernised country gentlemen 
and enterprising merchants and manufacturers, with their 
well-managed estates and prosperous enterprises.” ? 

After much discussion, Lord Dufferin’s proposals bore fruit 
in the Councils Act of 1892, which enlarged the Legislative 
Councils to a very moderate extent and established the fact 
of election thereto by public bodies, including the new Municipal 
and District Boards. The Government would nominate a 
majority to each Council. Questions might be asked by 
members under certain restrictions, and the annual Budget 
might be discussed but not voted on. 

The Congress were dissatisfied with these reforms and de- 
veloped a practice of sending delegates to England to create 
there an atmosphere favourable to their ambitions. Simul- 
taneously they pushed their propaganda in India, increasingly 
endeavouring to discredit the existing system of Government. 
Among them were some Konkanasth Brahmans whose quarrel 
with British rule and Western civilisation lay deep down, who 
resented either in any shape whatever, who regarded them as 
inimical to their own religious and social ascendancy and 
quoted with bitterness the far-away past of Hinduism or the 
later glories of the Peishwas. In the Bombay Presidency a 
movement was inaugurated for the repair of Sivaji’s tomb. 
Festivals were held in his honour, and the memory of his 
exploits was revived in verses. This movement was anti-Muslim 
at first, as well as anti-British. It was Brahman and anti- 
foreign. 

Lord Lansdowne’s Government adopted a neutral attitude 
toward the Congress movement, which, it considered, repre- 


Montagu-Chelmsford Report, p. 117. 


( 


THE BEGINNING OF POLITICS 153 


sented ‘‘ what would be called in Europe the advanced Liberal 
Party as distinguished from the great mass of Conservative 
opinion which exists beside it.” ? 

Lord Lansdowne’s peaceful viceroyalty was marked by the 
despatch of Sir Mortimer Durand, Foreign Secretary, to Kabul 
in order to settle certain controversies with Amir Abdul Rahman. 
The mission was eminently successful. It was arranged that 
a boundary line marking spheres of influence on the north- 
west frontier should be demarcated by Afghan and British 
commissioners. 

In 1893 Lord Lansdowne was succeeded by Lord Elgin, the 
son of a previous Viceroy. In 1895 the rains were deficient 
and in 1896 they largely failed. A famine resulted, most 
serious in the United and Central Provinces, but affecting other 
areas aS well. It was stoutly and efficiently combated by the 
Administration at a cost of over £5,000,000 sterling. Four 
million persons were receiving relief in the early months of 1897. 

In 1896 India was assailed by another malignant enemy. 
Bubonic plague arrived at Bombay and spread to Poona, the 
centre of the anti-foreign movement. It soon caused wide- 
spread mortality and, according to custom at such times, the 
masses were disposed to blame their rulers. In its anxiety to 
arrest the progress of the pestilence the Bombay Government 
adopted methods of segregation which interfered with the 
habits and ideas of the people. House-to-house visitations 
were resorted to; and in Poona British soldiers were employed 
on search-parties. 

Natural dislike of such measures was fanned by bitter dia- 
tribes in the vernacular press, and especially in a newspaper 
named the Kesari (the Lion), edited by a Konkanasth Brahman 
named Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a well-known Congress man, 
who had bitterly opposed the Government’s endeavour to 
mitigate the evil of child-marriage. Articles in the Kesari 
published in May and June 1897 ascribed oppressive intentions 
to the Government, stigmatised Mr. Rand, the Plague Commis- 
sioner, aS a tyrant, and in verse depicted Sivaji awakened 
from his long sleep and horrified at the state of his realm. He 
had established swaraj. But now famine and plague stalked 
through the land; Brahmans were imprisoned, and white 
men escaped justice. One article hinted that in certain cir- 
cumstances political murder was justifiable. 

Shortly after its appearance Mr. Rand and another British 
officer were assassinated in Poona by two young Brahmans. 


t Lovett, Indian Nationalist Movement, p. 45. 


154 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


The murderers were arrested, tried, convicted and executed. 
Tilak was prosecuted and was convicted of spreading disaffec- 
tion. He was sentenced to a term of imprisonment, but his 
influence increased and spread especially in the western presi- 
dency. Elsewhere in India Hindu revivalists were beginning 
to blend anti-foreign with religious teaching. The tone of the 
Hindu press became bitterer. Much stress was laid on the fact 
that in 1894 the Government had been compelled by the 
Secretary of State to reduce the duty on Lancashire woven- 
cotton imports from 5 to 38 per cent. and to impose a counter- 
vailing excise duty on woven-cotton fabrics manufactured in 
Indian mills. 

The close of Lord Elgin’s time was marked by a war with 
the Swatis, the Mohmands and Afridis, tribes on the north- 
west frontier, which was not brought to a satisfactory con- 
clusion until large forces had been employed and Tirah, the 
country of the Afridis, had been penetrated by British troops. 
A road had been made to Chitral, which had previously been 
annexed after a revolution and defiance of the British agent. 
British officers too had been demarcating the Durand boundary 
line. Tribal suspicion of British intentions was exploited by 
Muslim fanaticism, which resented English abuse of Turkish 
treatment of the Armenians. 

In 1899 Lord Elgin was succeeded by the Hon. George 
Nathaniel Curzon, eldest son of Lord Scarsdale, who was 
raised to the Irish peerage as Lord Curzon of Kedleston. He 
was in his fortieth year and had served in Lord Salisbury’s 
Government as Under-Secretary first for India and then for 
Foreign Affairs. After a distinguished career at Oxford, he 
had travelled in India, Afghanistan, Persia and other Asiatic 
countries. He had acquired a reputation for remarkable 
ability, energy and enthusiasm. To him the British Empire 
in India was still in its youth, and had in it ‘‘ the vitality of an 
unexhausted purpose.’ He devoted himself to his task with 
‘* an imagination fired by the grandeur of the political problem 
which India presents.’ 1 The first period of his administration, 
from January 1899 to April 1904, covered the ordinary span of 
a viceroyalty and was eminently successful. The second, from 
December 1904 to November 1905, ended in his premature 
resignation and was marked by events which profoundly 
influenced the subsequent course of Indian affairs. 

1 Lord Morley’s Indian Speeches, p. 121. 


THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CURZON 155 


XVIII 
THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CURZON 


Lorp CuRzON began by adopting a definite north-west frontier 
policy. The Tirah campaign had left about 10,000 troops 
quartered beyond the British-Indian boundary line. He with- 
drew them from the Khaibar Pass, the Kurram Valley, and the 
tribal country generally, retaining and fortifying certain iso- 
lated posts. For the troops withdrawn he substituted tribal 
levies trained and commanded by British officers. British- 
Indian troops were concentrated at important points within 
British territory; strategic railways were laid. The frontier 
trans-Indus districts were withdrawn from Punjab administra- 
tion and combined with the political charges of the Malakand, 
the Khaibar, the Kurram, Tochi and Wana in a new North- 
west Frontier Province with an area of 40,000 square miles 
under a Chief Commissioner responsible to the Government of 
India. At the same time, to avoid confusion, the North-west 
Provinces and Oudh were renamed the United Provinces of 
Agra and Oudh. 

The Frontier settled down; and Amir Abdul Rahman 
allayed tribal fanaticism by proclaiming that no occasion for 
Jehad (holy war) existed. Should one arise, he would announce 
it. This strong and capable ruler died in 1901, after declaring 
in a published autobiography that he should have been allowed 
to annex tribal territory and ally himself with Turkey and 
Persia, both Muslim Powers. He was peacefully succeeded 
by his elder son Habibulla, with whom, after some delay and 
a mission to Kabul, harmonious relations were established. 
The new Amir received the title of *‘ His Majesty’? and con- 
tinued to draw a large subsidy on the old terms. 

Within the first year of assuming office, Lord Curzon de- 
spatched to Durban a fine and well-equipped British force which 
held Ladysmith and saved Natal from Boer invasion. At a 
later date, moved by spontaneous offers of help from Indian 
Princes, he offered 10,000 cavalry and infantry of the Indian 
Army for service in South Africa; but the offer was not 
accepted. 

Britain had cleared the Persian Gulf of piratical craft and 
had kept its waters open to vessels of all nations. She did 
not desire to occupy land along the sea-board, but strongly 
objected to alienation of such land to another European Power. 


156 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


Various menaces in this direction, and notably Germany’s 
endeavour to procure a site for the terminus of the Berlin-to- 
Baghdad Railway, combined with increasing control of Northern 
Persia by Russia to produce decisive steps on the part of those 
responsible for British interests. In May 1903 Lord Lans- 
downe, Foreign Secretary, announced that Britain would resist, 
with all the means at her disposal, the establishment by any 
other Power of a naval base or fortified post in the Persian 
Gulf; and in the same year Lord Curzon visited the principal 
ports of the Gulf with a strong naval squadron. The announce- 
ment and the visit considerably strengthened British prestige 
in an area of great strategic importance to India. 

The determination of the Tibetans to seal their country 
against intercourse with India while employing in a high post 
a Russian subject named Dorjiev, who had visited Russia re- 
cently and been received in audience by the Tsar, led to the 
despatch of a well-organised military expedition to Tibet. 
But the way to the capital, Lhasa, was only cleared by a pitiful 
slaughter of a poorly armed Tibetan force; and the eventual 
result of the expedition was little more than an extension of 
geographical knowledge. The suzerainty of China over Tibet 
was acknowledged; but since China adopted republican insti- 
tutions, Tibet has again become independent. 

The restlessness which followed in the wake of Western 
education in India was not only religious, social and political, 
but also economic. It was increased by the fact that in the 
older provinces, Bengal, Madras and Bombay, the English- 
educated, disdaining agriculture and manual work, were throng- 
ing all avenues to the public services and the legal, educational 
and medical professions. Industrial employment was less 
sought after and was restricted by the shyness of Indian capital 
and the preference of students for a literary education. While, 
however, prospects of congenial work were narrowing, the cost 
of living was gradually rising and the standard of comfort, 
under the influence of increasing intercourse with Europe, 
was rising too. 

What was true to-day of the older provinces with their 
great seaports and longer-established contact with the West 
would undoubtedly be true to-morrow of the inland provinces. 
But for the moment the particular part of India where the 
problem was most acute was Bengal. There, under the influ- 
ence of Calcutta and its busy life, the middle classes, including 
a multitude of small land-holders, were keenly desirous of 
securing Western education for their sons, and had, at their 


THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CURZON 157 


own expense, added numerous secondary schools and colleges 
to those established by the Government and by missionary 
societies. Self-help of this kind was unusual in India and had 
been welcomed by the provincial Government, which for some 
years had gladly left the care of colleges and schools very 
largely to the Calcutta University authorities and to local 
committees amenable to the pressure of parents, who were 
disposed to place cheapness above quality in education. Under- 
payment of teachers, over-crowding of classes and a disastrous 
lowering of examination-standards had resulted; and a Cal- 
cutta University degree had ceased to carry with it the authority 
of former days. Other abuses had sprung up; and remedial 
action was clearly called for in Bengal and elsewhere. Clearly 
perceiving the national, social and political issues at stake, 
Lord Curzon devoted all his energy to a strenuous endeavour 
to raise and broaden the whole educational system. But 
racial suspicion and vested interests stood in the way; and 
the very vigour and earnestness of the Viceroy were ascribed 
by his adversaries to desire to curtail the number of the rest- 
less Western-educated. 

In spite of much opposition he passed a valuable Universities 
Act in March 1904; but when he left India prematurely, his 
work for education was unfinished and had antagonised many 
of those for whose benefit it had been undertaken. Their 
resentment was increased by his partition of Bengal. 

In 1901 Indians generally had mourned the death of Queen 
Victoria, whose concern and affection for India admitted of no 
doubt. 

The accession of King Edward was celebrated at Delhi in 
January 1903, where a great Durbar was attended by H.R.H. 
the Duke of Connaught. The speech of the Viceroy was full 
of confidence in the present and the future. Yet in fact the 
period of unchallenged government which had lasted since the 
Mutiny was drawing to a close. Among the Western-educated 
classes, who were dissatisfied with their economic position and 
had imbibed ideas of nationality and self-government from 
English politics, history and literature, there was an impatience 
of existing conditions. Advantage had already been taken of 
famines, of plague, of difficulties of various kinds, of the 
chequered events of the Boer War, to depreciate British rule 
and British efficiency. But the great majority, the ruling 
princes, the rural and martial classes, the masses, were tranquil 
and unchanged; and when Lord Curzon left for a rest in 
England in April 1904 no one imagined that a project then 


158 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


under public discussion would call forth a tempestuous 
agitation. 

The presidency province of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, with 
its population of 78,000,000, including the inhabitants of the 
capital of the Empire, had weighed too heavily on a single 
provincial Government. The water-country of Eastern Bengal 
with its abundant rainfall, its precarious and scanty communica- 
tions, its rich harvests of rice and jute, its teeming population 
partly concentrated in a few towns but mainly scattered over 
multitudinous villages, had been largely and inevitably neg- 
lected. Some administrative change was desirable; and after 
much discussion, after personally touring in Eastern Bengal 
and consulting its leading men, after considering the matter 
on leave in England, Lord Curzon decided, in consultation with 
his Executive Council, to combine the existing province with 
the small neighbouring province of Assam in a new arrange- 
ment whereby two new provinces would be constituted, one 
consisting of Western Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and the other 
of Eastern Bengal and Assam. 

This arrangement afforded the best prospect of developing 
the rich and populous eastern districts, but split Bengal proper 
into two and gave the Muhammadans, who were a minority 
therein, numerical preponderance in the new eastern province. 
It was sanctioned by the Secretary of State on June 9, 1905, 
and announced in India on the 19th of the following month at 
a season when the final victories of Japan over once-dreaded 
Russia were everywhere a theme of intense admiration. 

The Hindu Bar and Press at Calcutta were already opposed 
to Lord Curzon’s policy, and particularly to any scheme which 
seemed likely to infringe on the importance of their city as the 
centre of the legal, journalistic, educational and commercial 
activities of Bengal. Vested interests too seemed in peril. 
A loud outcry was raised that the Bengali nation would be cut 
into two. But the new arrangement was certainly agreeable 
to the Muhammadan majority in Eastern Bengal; it promised 
better administration and more rapid development to that 
spacious area. For centuries before Plassey Bengal had been 
under Moghal or Afghan domination and the masses of its 
population had accepted all changes of Government with 
stolid indifference. The Government therefore held that Hindu 
political opposition was not based on genuine feeling, omitting 
perhaps to appreciate the enormous effect of the triumphs of 
Japan on political sentiment. 

The partition was carried out in October 1905; and the new 


THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CURZON 159 


provinces started on their brief career. Hindu politicians and 
newspapers, taking the glorious achievements of Japan as a 
text to preach from, directed supersession of European goods 
by swadeshi (indigenous) products. The former were to be 
boycotted, and various factories were launched for manufacture 
of the latter. In order ‘to enlist mass-sympathy, the anti- 
partition movement was placed under the patronage of Mother 
Kali, the terrible goddess, and Bengalis were exhorted to 
remember the exploits of Sivaji. The movement took time 
to gather force, and the visit to India of their now reigning 
Majesties, as Prince and Princess of Wales, passed off success- 
fully in the cold season of 1905-6. Lord Curzon had left India 
on November 18, 1905. Lord Minto, lately Governor-General 
of Canada, great-grandson of a former Viceroy, had succeeded 
him; and Mr. John, afterwards Lord, Morley had become 
Secretary of State, as the representative of a mammoth Liberal 
majority in the House of Commons. 

Lord Curzon’s resignation was caused by a difference with 
the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Kitchener, who was busy with 
the reorganisation of the Indian army. While the Commander- 
in-Chief was an Extraordinary Member of the Viceroy’s Execu- 
tive Council, his proposals regarding army administration 
reached the Viceroy through an Ordinary (Military) Member 
of the Council, who was at the head of a department of the 
Government and was always a distinguished soldier. Lord 
Kitchener advocated the abolition of the Military Member and 
his department, and the institution of a single army department 
presided over by the Commander-in-Chief as an Ordinary 
Member of Council. Lord Curzon, however, and other members 
of his Council, objected that this innovation would concentrate 
military authority in the hands of the Commander-in-Chief 
and would subvert the supremacy of the civil power by depriv- 
ing it of independent military advice. Lord Kitchener, how- 
ever, still urged that the Commander-in-Chief’s proposals 
should not be criticised from a military point of view by a 
Military Member of Council, who must necessarily be his junior 
in rank and inferior in experience. 

The dispute was referred to the expiring Unionist Cabinet 
in London, who decided on a compromise which convinced the 
Viceroy that in effect Lord Kitchener’s contention was accepted. 
He therefore resigned. The compromise came into effect and, 
in the words of Lord Morley, “‘ proved good neither for ad- 
ministration nor economy.’ The Commander-in-Chief became 
the Viceroy’s military adviser as an Ordinary Member of 


160 FROM 1is61 TO 1914 


Council; and the new arrangement bore evil fruit ten years 
later. 

It is generally forgotten that while Lord Curzon carried out 
spectacular measures which have been the subject of vehement 
controversy and conducted the foreign affairs of the Indian 
Empire with boldness and success, he also left a remarkable 
and beneficent impression on famine, revenue and police ad- 
ministration. 

He never forgot the predominant importance in the body 
politic of the classes who live by the land, the great majority 
of the people of India. Their character and circumstances 
attracted his close attention. Early in his term of office 
Western and Central India were afflicted by failure of rains 
and wide destruction of crops. Relief measures were vigor- 
ously undertaken on principles laid down in Lord Lytton’s 
days and extended by a famine commission appointed by 
Lord Elgin’s Government. Lord Curzon himself visited the 
famine area where cholera was active; fodder as well as crops 
were lacking and great mortality of cattle had ensued. He 
personally examined the state of affairs and the remedial 
measures. At the end of July 1900 over 6,500,000 persons 
were under relief. His Government spared no pains to make 
this relief effective, and the Viceroy’s observations bore fruit 
in the appointment of a strong famine Commission under Sir 
Anthony, now Lord, MacDonnell which did much to secure that 
future famines should be no more than prolonged periods of 
unemployment accompanied by dear food. Yet always famines 
in India must be hard to combat. This famine was particularly 
severe and made extraordinary demands on many Government 
servants, some of whom lost their lives in the struggle. The 
State expenditure approached £7,000,000. 

The Viceroy’s efforts on behalf of the agricultural masses did 
not end with famine relief. He did much to impart elasticity 
and careful consideration to the collection of land revenue and, 
in order to combat rural indebtedness and encourage thrift, 
started a system of co-operative credit societies which has 
already won remarkable success. He co-ordinated and stimu- 
lated effort for the application of scientific principles to agri- 
culture, a matter of enormous importance to the well-being of 
India. To the improvement of the police he devoted anxious 
care. For the betterment of conditions among the people at 
large no Governor-General has ever taken more constant 
thought. 

His interests were not confined to the present and the future. 


THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CURZON 161 


For the past, for the noble buildings and memorials of India 
he showed loving and meticulous care, never wearying in 
tracing the footsteps of great men of all ages. If toward the 
end of his term of office he failed fully to appreciate factors 
of undiscovered potency, if he pressed on reforms too forcibly 
and incessantly, he will always stand out in history as a Viceroy 
who gave his whole soul and energy to every detail of his great 
task. On the civil administration his influence was stimulating, 
For the people his care was unceasing. 


XIX 
THE DECADE BEFORE THE WAR 


In 1902-3 a small band of Western-educated young Hindus, 
possessed with the idea that India needed liberation from 
foreign rule, and attracted by stories of secret societies in 
Russia, endeavoured to launch a revolutionary movement in 
Bengal. Their leader, however, was discouraged by a general 
lack of response to his appeal. The minds of many of his class 
had indeed been stirred by religious revivalists, who preached 
that Western materialism was the bane of India and must be 
conquered by Eastern spirituality, that the aid of the ‘* Mother 
of Strength’? must be invoked. But not until after the arrival 
of the electrifying news of Japanese victories and the com- 
mencement of the anti-Partition campaign with its vehement 
invectives, its boycott propaganda, its enlistment of school- 
boys and students in picketing operations, did the revolutionists 
make any headway. They were assisted by the fact that 
anti-Partitionist agitators were vehemently opposed by the 
Muhammadans of Eastern Bengal, the main theatre of the 
campaign; for the frequent disturbances which resulted from 
this circumstance afforded useful cover for subtle and secret 
operations. 

Recruiting zealously from the masses of Hindu youths who 
thronged far-flung schools and colleges under needy, discon- 
tented teachers, the revolutionaries organised societies with 
extensive ramifications. They gradually collected arms and 
manufactured bombs; but their immediate purpose was to 
** build up public opinion,” to create an atmosphere which 
would favour the development of their general plans. For 
this purpose they published journals and leaflets preaching 


IN—l11 


162 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


violent revolution and omitting no calumny or artifice which 
could vilify the British race. 

For their initiates they prescribed a curious mixture of text- 
books, including the Bhagavad Gita, the Lives of Mazzini and 
Garibaldi, books on explosives and military manuals. They 
reiterated the achievements of Japan; they emphasised the 
importance of ‘‘ cautiously spreading the gospel of independence 
among Indian troops’’; they taught that should voluntary 
subscriptions to the movement fail, money must be extorted 
from ‘‘ miserly or luxurious members of society.’’ Everything. 
must be sacrificed to the religious duty of getting rid of the 
European. India would then recover her ancient glory. Her 
civilisation had become corrupted first by Muhammadan and 
then by British cruelty and aggression. The propaganda was 
supported by gross perversions of history. 

In December 1907 the first-fruits of the harvest from these 
seeds were reaped when the train on which the Lieutenant- 
Governor of Bengal was travelling was derailed by a bomb. 
In the same month a British district officer was shot in the 
back in an Eastern Bengal railway-station. 

While these doings were in preparation the Congress of 
December 1906 justified the boycott and requested annulment 
of the partition. Nevertheless sober politicians were becoming 
intensely alarmed, although as yet they lacked the resolution 
to shake off their fanatical associates. A split was for the 
moment avoided by the adoption of Swaraj! as a goal. To 
one Congress school—the ‘* Moderates’’—Swaraj] meant the 
establishment of a parliamentary system. ‘To those who were 
becoming known as Extremists it stood for absolute indepen- 
dence. The President of the Congress declared in English that 
** self-government’? would bring prosperity to all. In the 
meantime certain preliminaries, such as considerably enlarged 
Legislative Councils, must be demanded. 

The situation was inadequately grasped by the highest 
authorities. Its graver developments were not anticipated. 
The Moderates and Extremists combined formed an extremely 
small element in the populations of India; they belonged to 
the orderly and peaceful classes ; for two years the visible activi- 
ties of the Revolutionists were hardly distinguishable from those 
of the anti-Partitionists; and although district and police 
officers, who were bearing the brunt of the assault with extreme 
patience and courage, realised increasingly that some climax 
must come, their views penetrated_slowly to a Secretary of 


1 See footnote, p. 31. 


THE DECADE BEFORE THE WAR 163 


State who had persuaded himself that ‘‘ the over-confident 
and overworked Tchinoyniks ’’ } themselves were responsible for 
the unrest. 

In numbers these unfortunate persons were few indeed. In 
the great water-country which was the main area of disturbances 
there were at first only ninety-two British Government officers 
of all descriptions, administrative, judicial, police, medical, 
educational, public works, to conduct and supervise fourteen 
extensive districts, mainly devoid of efficient communications, 
and inhabited by sixteen millions of people. Eastern Bengal, 
which was receiving pressing attentions from the agitators, 
was administratively starved. Its sole reserve force consisted 
of fifty military police. Its civil police were everywhere below 
strength. Such deficiencies were supplied slowly and gradually. 

The Viceroy, a man of pleasant, even, courageous temper, 
was new to India and would not support the first Lieutenant- 
Governor of the Province in a determined effort to stop the 
participation of schoolboys in political meetings.. The Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, Sir Bampfylde Fuller, resigned; and _ his 
resignation was promptly accepted by the Viceroy and Secre- 
tary of State. Its effect was disastrous. 

Lord Morley’s perplexities and gradual conversion to ener- 
getic measures are chronicled in his Recollecttons. He was 
embarrassed by his predilections, by the fact that while declin- 
ing to reverse the partition he had expressed disapproval of it, 
and by a section of his party which had taken the anti-Partition 
movement under its patronage. Together with the Viceroy 
he was much absorbed in devising constitutional reforms which, 
by conforming to the spirit of British institutions, might satisfy 
Indian political demands. But both were agreed that it was 
*‘neither desirable, nor possible, nor conceivable to adapt 
English political institutions to the nations who inhabit India.’ ? 
In April 1907 Lord Minto publicly announced that he had sent 
home a despatch proposing administrative reforms on a liberal 
basis. 

In the same month it became evident that the ferment in 
Bengal was bearing fruit elsewhere. Early in 1907 the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of the Punjab noted that a ‘“‘ new air’’ was 
blowing through men’s minds. In April he reported that 
educated Extremist agitators were pushing a definite anti- 
English propaganda and were endeavouring to inflame the 
passions of the Sikhs, by exploiting certain unpopular agrarian 


1 Lord Morley, Recollections, vol. ii, p. 235. 
* Lbhid,,.p;. LT2. 


164 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


legislation. Conspirators desired to drive the British from 
India either by force or by the passive resistance of the people 
as a whole. Policemen and Indian soldiers were being advised 
to quit Government service. Twice Europeans had been 
assaulted assuch. The situation was ‘‘ exceedingly dangerous ”’ 
and urgently demanded remedy. Riots developed at Lahore and 
Rawalpindi. The agrarian legislation was vetoed ; and the two 
chief agitators were deported. Trouble immediately subsided. 

In 1907 the Moderates and Extremists drew farther apart. 
In December the Congress met at Surat and ended in tumul- 
tuous uproar, the Extremists endeavouring but failing to 
impose their will on the Moderates by force. For some years 
afterwards, under the predominating influence of Gopal Krishna 
Gokhale, a Konkanasth Brahman of great ability, the Congress 
was Moderate. Certain Extremists identified themselves with 
revolutionary societies. 

On May 23, 1908, at Muzaffarpur in Bihar, two English 
ladies were assassinated by a Bengali bomb-thrower who 
intended his missile for a British magistrate; and after this 
horrible event came the disclosure of a criminal conspiracy. 
The leader and nineteen of his associates were convicted after 
open trial. They had been manufacturing bombs and for over 
two years had launched on the Bengali public a highly inflam- 
matory propaganda. In Bombay Bal Gangadhar Tilak pub- 
plished articles, attributing the murders to the refusal of 
Swaraj and praising the bomb-throwers. He was tried for 
endeavouring to provoke enmity and hatred against the Govern- 
ment and between different classes of His Majesty’s subjects, 
was convicted, and was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. 
Other prosecutions were instituted in Bombay ; and the murder 
of Mr. Jackson, a highly popular district officer, brought to 
light the existence of a Brahman secret society formed appar- 
ently on the Russian model. 

The seed which had been sown broadcast in Bengal produced 
a crop of murders, bomb-outrages, assassinations of Indian 
police officers, gang-robberies committed against helpless people 
in far-away villages. The theatre of action was mainly the 
eastern province and the city of Calcutta itself. The long 
start which the conspirators had obtained had enabled them 
to establish a terrorism which rendered it exceedingly difficult 
to induce witnesses to come forward. The Bengal propaganda 
produced occasional crime and disorder in other inland pro- 
vinces, but took little root, partly because of the resolute 
resistance of Sir John Hewett in the United and Sir Reginald 


THE DECADE BEFORE THE WAR __165 


Craddock in the Central Provinces. Sir George Clarke, after- 
wards Lord Sydenham, and his Council boldly met and entirely 
baffled revolutionary activity in Bombay. 

Extremely uneasy as to the place which their community 
would occupy in the reformed Legislative Councils, leading 
Muslims approached the Viceroy in October 1906, gratefully 
acknowledging ‘‘ the peace, security and liberty of person and 
worship conferred by the British Government,’ one of the 
most important characteristics of which was its regard for 
the wishes of all races and religions. Representative institu- 
tions were new to Indians and, in the absence of the greatest 
caution, dangerous to their national interests. The position 
of Indian Muhammadans should be estimated not merely on 
their numerical strength but with regard to their political 
importance in the Empire. The justice of this claim was 
admitted in Lord Minto’s reply; and thus began concessions 
of communal representations to minorities. A ‘‘ Muslim 
League’ came gradually into widespread existence. Its prin- 
cipal promoter, His Highness the Aga Khan, declared that 
prosperity and contentment could be reached only by pro- 
cesses of devolution and evolution on natural lines. These 
processes required the existence of a strong, just and stable 
Government securing justice and equal opportunity to all, 
minorities as well as majorities. All patriots should strengthen 
British control under which had been effected ‘‘ the amazing 
progress of a century.” 

On November 2, 1908, the fiftieth anniversary of Queen 
Victoria’s proclamation, King Edward VII issued another 
proclamation to the Princes and people of India which under- 
took to repress anarchy, take continuously steps towards 
obliterating distinctions of race for access to posts of public 
authority, and ‘* prudently exten! the principle of representa- 
tive institutions.’ On the 17th of the following month the 
reforms were announced which had for two years been under 
careful discussion and consideration. They enlarged the 
Legislative Councils considerably, giving the provincial bodies 
non-official majorities composed of elected and nominated 
sections. Any member could divide his Legislative Council on 
financial questions; and all Councils would discuss matters 
of public importance and make recommendations to the Execu- 
tive Governments. The Executive Councils of the Viceroy 
and of such provincial Governments as possessed Executive 
Councils would consist partly of Indian members. The official 
majority on the Imperial Legislative Council was retained. In 


166 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


announcing this retention, Lord Morley declared that the new 
Councils were not designed to pave the way to the establish- 
ment of a parliamentary system in India. To that goal he 
would not “‘ for one moment aspire.” His reforms, however, 
clearly tended in that direction. 

The Moderates were gratified; and the novelty and stir 
of the new Councils pleased the landlords, whose interests 
had been considered in framing the regulations made under 
the Act. But the stream of revolutionary crime flowed on in 
Bengal; and the Extremist press spared no effort to foster 
hatred of the Government. A courageous stand against its 
designs was made by Mr. Gokhale in October 1909; and the 
Viceroy consulted the ruling chiefs, who had themselves been 
addressed by the Revolutionists in a menacing pamphlet, as 
to the needs of the situation. The majority represented the 
urgent importance of curbing effectually the licence of the 
press. In 1908 two repressive Acts had been passed, one de- 
signed to prevent newspaper incitement of offences. But it 
had borne little fruit. The correspondence resulted in the 
passing of a Press Act in February 1910 by the newly consti- 
tuted Imperial Legislative Council. The Act practically sub- 
stituted forfeiture of security for criminal prosecution, and 
while conceding a certain amount to executive discretion, 
tempered that discretion by making orders of forfeiture appeal- 
able to a High Court. It immediately produced a salutary 
change in the atmosphere. 

This measure, the outspoken loyalty of the Princes, the 
reforms, the altered attitude of the Congress, the breaking-up 
and bringing to trial of two large gangs of Bengali conspirators, 
the personal popularity of Lord Minto, all combined to make 
the last year of his troubled term of office comparatively peace- 
ful. The Viceroy’s fine courage, love of manly sports, genial, 
straightforward simplicity, won the hearts of those with whom 
he came into contact. Toward the end of 1910 he was suc- 
ceeded by Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, a distinguished diploma- 
tist, grandson of a Governor-General, at that time Permanent 
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Lord Hardinge received 
an address of welcome from the Congress and soon earned 
much popularity by strongly criticising South African treatment 
of Indian immigrants, and showing sympathy with a passive 
resistance movement organised in South Africa by Mr. Mohandas 
Karamchand Gandhi, a Hindu barrister from Guzerat in the 
Bombay Presidency. Lord Hardinge declared that the South 
African Government should appoint a committee of enquiry into 


THE DECADE BEFORE THE WAR 167 


the grievances complained of, which should contain an Indian 
element. His speech was severely criticised from a constitu- 
tional point of view, but achieved its object. An Act was 
eventually passed by the South African Government which 
substantially improved the conditions for Indian immigrants. 
The Congress had for some years concerned itself in the status 
of Indian immigrants in the Colonies of the Empire. 

On December 12, 1911, King George V and Queen Mary 
presided over a great Coronation Durbar at Delhi. The royal 
visit was a brilliant success, leaving memories of the gracious 
and sympathetic personalities of their Majesties which exercised 
a powerful influence in India during the troubled years of the 
war. At the Durbar His Majesty announced that Bengal 
would no longer be divided. It would be one province under 
a Governor-in-Council. Assam would become again the charge 
of a Chief Commissioner. Bihar and Orissa would be the charge 
of a Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council. The capital of India 
would henceforth be Delhi and not Calcutta. These changes, 
which reversed a statement by Lord Morley that the Partition 
was “‘ a settled fact,” created a great sensation. Congress was 
gratified ; but the Muhammadans of the young province of 
Eastern Bengal and Assam were bitterly annoyed. 

A passage in the published despatch of the Government of 
India was generally interpreted by politicians as foreshadowing 
self-government on colonial lines. But this interpretation was 
in June 1912 expressly repudiated by Lord Crewe, then Secre- 
tary of State, who stated that to him the existence of an Indian 
Empire, on the lines of Australia and New Zealand, with no 
British officials, and no tie of creed and blood ‘‘ which takes 
the place of these material bonds,”’ was “‘ as imaginary as any 
Atlantis that was ever thought of by the ingenious brain of 
any imaginative writer.” 

In 1912 a Public Services Commission was appointed to 
investigate the possibilities of admitting Indians in larger 
numbers into the higher grades of the various Civil Services. 
Indianising of the Services had been for some time progressing. 
The year was further marked by a change in Muslim political 
sentiment, due partly to the altered partition of Bengal, partly 
to disgust at the attitude of Britain during the Balkan War 
and partly to the growing belief that agitation paid best. In 
March 1913 the Muslim League Association meeting at Luck- 
now, its headquarters, declared its objects to be “‘ the pro- 
motion among Indians of loyalty to the British Crown, the 
protection of the rights of Muhammadans and, without detri- 


168 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


ment to the foregoing objects, the attainment of the system 
of self-government suitable to India.”’ This particular ideal was 
only adopted after a heated discussion. It was said that if 
Sir Edward Grey remained arbiter of Britain’s foreign policy, 
the Muslim status in Asia would be swallowed up by Russia. 

The revolutionists were now quieter, but were still busy 
in secret places. In December when the Viceroy and Lady 
Hardinge, mounted on an elephant, were entering the new 
capital in state, a bomb was thrown which wounded His Excel- 
lenecy very seriously and killed an attendant. The firm and 
courageous behaviour of the Viceroy and Vicereine excited 
general admiration. The late Lady Hardinge had already 
earned widespread esteem and regard. Her death in England, 
three years later, was universally mourned. 

The assassin was not arrested; and revolutionary societies 
continued to assert their presence in Bengal by intermittent 
criminal activities. But their sympathisers had fallen into 
much disrepute and exercised no influence over the general 
course of political affairs. The business of the new Councils 
progressed smoothly and well, although not without the occa- 
sional racial friction inseparable from all such bodies.’ Poli- 
ticians generally were seeking vaguely for the establishment 
of a parliamentary system; but all sober thinkers were fully 
conscious of the advance made by India under Crown govern- 
ment, an advance clearly illustrated by some passages of a 
farewell speech by a notable Lieutenant-Governor in March 
1912: 

‘* When I first became acquainted with this country” (in 
1877), said Sir John Hewett,? ‘‘ she had hardly taken her place 
in the community of nations; the steamers between India 
and England, and between England and her colonies, were 
far less frequent and much slower than at present. For every 
postal article then sent to or received from the United Kingdom 
or foreign countries forty-two are now despatched or received ; 
for every telegram received from or sent to countries beyond 
the continent of India three are now received or sent. The 
aggregate value of the external trade of the country was 
£84,000,000 sterling; it is now £270,000,000. The mileage of 
railways in India was then 7,320; it had reached by March 
1911, 32,400.2 Last year over 370,000,000 persons travelled as 


1 See Morley’s Recollections, vol. ii, p. 340. 
2 G.C.S.I., now M.P. 
8 In the financial year 1920-1 the figure was 37,000, 


THE DECADE BEFORE THE WAR 169 


passengers on the railways, and over 65,000,000 tons of goods 
were moved on them.! 

‘* The post offices are four and a half times as numerous as 
they were, and letter-boxes nine times as numerous. Between 
seven and eight articles now pass through the post for one 
that did then. No less than £30,500,000 sterling were last 
year remitted by money order. There are five and a half 
times as many miles of telegraph wires as there were, twelve 
times as many telegraph offices, and nearly ten times as many 
telegrams are despatched every day. 

‘‘In this province (the United Provinces) there are now 
thirty-six miles of railway and three miles of metalled road for 
each mile of either kind that existed then. The cultivated 
area has increased by nearly 6,000,000 acres—an advance of 
nearly 12 per cent. The canals are now irrigating an area 
55 per cent. greater than they did. Except in Bundelkhand 
and in districts of the Benares division, where the land is per- 
manently settled, the value of land has risen by 100 to 150 per 
cent. 

‘‘'Lawlessness has been much reduced. A peacefully dis- 
posed person can live his life with infinitely less danger of 
being exposed to tyranny and wrong, though, probably amongst 
the less advanced members of the community, regard for the 
sanctity of human life is hardly greater than it was a generation 
ago. The number of institutions coming within the ken of 
the Department of Public Instruction has increased by 50 per 
cent.; and the pupils attending them by 114 per cent. With 
the spread of literacy there has come increased activity in 
printing and publishing: nearly three publications are pub- 
lished for every one, and the number of newspapers in circula- 
tion has doubled. 

‘* Medical relief has become much more general and popular. 
There are nearly three dispensaries for every one that there 
was a generation ago, and there are between four and five 
times as many patients.” 

The Lieutenant-Governor went on to comment on the ad- 
vances made in municipal government and continued: 

‘In rural areas wages have risen greatly, and the improve- 
ment in the condition of the ordinary labourer was demon- 
strated conclusively during the famine operations of 1908.2 I 
have seen in Europe—I have seen in Great Britain— individuals 


1 In 1920-1 the figures were 560,000,000 and 87,000,000. 
2 In 1907-8 severe failure of the rains and destruction of crops had been 
successfully met and countered in the United Provinces. 


170 FROM 1861 TO 1914 


and whole communities, the members of which, considering the 
terrible extremes of cold and damp that they have to endure 
for such long periods at a time, are infinitely worse off not 
only than the ordinary cultivators but than the ordinary farm 
labourers in a typical village in this or any other part of India. 

‘‘In these remarks no attempt has been made to make 
anything like a complete comparison between the present and 
the past, but the facts that I have stated bear eloquent testi- 
mony to the silent revolution which is taking place in the 
conditions of life around us and to the steady progress that has 
been going on.” 


PART IV—FROM 1914 


XX 
1914-15 


On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria 
was murdered at Sarajevo in the Austrian province of Bosnia. 
The tragedy attracted little notice in India, but was the prelude 
to a number of remarkable events which have altered pro- 
foundly the course of India’s history. Pre-war British India 
has, like an unsubstantial pageant, faded. It has gone. Be- 
tween us and it lies a gulf which this brief narrative can only 
imperfectly bridge. 

As the climax of August 4 rapidly approached, India re- 
mained calm. The monsoon had begun well. Cultivators 
were busy in their fields. Trade, commerce and _ business 
progressed as usual. The surface of affairs was unvexed by 
any agitation. Relations with Afghanistan and the frontier 
tribes were good. 

In Bengal revolutionary associations were waging a sullen, 
fitful, subterranean warfare on the Government and their 
richer fellow-countrymen. In Muslim circles there was some 
discontent because Great Britain had failed to support or assist 
Turkey during the struggles of the Balkan War. Nevertheless, 
when at last the great day of trial came, a striking unanimity 
disclosed itself among all classes in India which disagreeably 
surprised the enemies of England. An Indian revolutionary 
periodical, published in America, had prophesied in December 
1913 that when war broke out between Germany and England, 
fortune would smile on nations ruined by British oppression. 
The auspicious hour must not pass without a rising in India. 
On March 6, 1914, the Berliner Tageblatt had published an 
article on ‘‘ England’s Indian Trouble,’ predicting that the day 
of reckoning for England would come far sooner than official 
negligence supposed. The writer took the gloomiest possible 
view of the British position in India, where, he said, secret 
societies of revolutionaries were being assisted from outside. 

Lik 


172 FROM 1914 


That there were secret societies of revolutionaries was true, 
but these were a very small section of the populace, even in 
the province most affected. The general sentiment of the 
country bore singular testimony to the real character of British 
rule. The quarrel, moreover, in which Britain took up arms, 
appealed to the warm Indian imagination; and when on 
August 8, 1914, the general officers commanding the Lahore 
and Meerut Divisions received orders to mobilise, the news 
was greeted by leaders of public opinion as well as by all ranks 
of the Army, with intense enthusiasm. The destination of the 
troops was unknown, but the general hope and expectation 
were that it would be France. 

On September 8, 1914, the members of the Imperial Legis- 
lative Council met at Simla and listened to the reading of His 
Majesty’s message by the Viceroy. They passed with eager 
unanimity a resolution of ‘‘ unswerving loyalty and enthusi- 
astic devotion to their King-Emperor and unflinching support 
to the British Government.’’ They desired also to express the 
opinion ‘‘ that the people of India, in addition to the military 
assistance now being afforded by India to the Empire, would 
wish to share in the heavy financial burden now imposed by 
the war on the United Kingdom,” and requested the Govern- 
ment of India ‘*‘ to take this view into consideration, and thus 
to demonstrate the unity of India with the Empire.” The 
resolution was by desire forwarded to His Majesty’s Govern- 
‘ment. The speeches of the mover, Sir Gangadhar Chitnavis, 
and his numerous supporters breathed that spirit of sincerity 
and co-operation which alone can guarantee the future of 
India. ‘‘ We know,” said Sir Gangadhar, ‘‘ that our present 
condition is due to the peace we have enjoyed under the 
British rule, that our very existence depends upon the con- 
tinuation of that rule. We cannot, on this occasion, be mere 
onlookers. Along with our devotion and sympathy, the general 
idea is to make any contribution that may be required of us.” 
‘* We aspire,’ said Mr. (now Sir) Surendranath Banerjee, a 
leading politician, ‘*‘ to colonial self-government, then we ought 
to emulate the example of the Colonials, and try to do what 
they are doing.’ The Viceroy, in winding up the debate, 
stated that practically all the ruling Chiefs had placed their 
military forces and the reserves of their States at the disposal 
of the Government. 

Lord Hardinge’s telegram of September 8, 1914, informed the 
Imperial Cabinet that the rulers of the Native States had 
‘* with one accord rallied to the defence of the Empire,’ offer- 


1914-15 1738 


ing their personal services and the resources of their States for 
the war, that from among the many Princes and nobles who 
had volunteered for active service, the Viceroy had selected 
‘the Chiefs of Jodhpur, Bikanir, Kishangarh, Ratlam, Sachin, 
Patiala, Sir Partab Singh, Regent of Jodhpur, the Heir-Apparent 
of Bhopal and a brother of the Maharaja of Cooch Bihar, 
together with other cadets of noble families.’ It added that 
the Maharaja of Gwalior and the Chiefs of Jaora and Dholpur, 
together with the Heir-Apparent of Palampur, had been, to 
their great regret, prevented from leaving their States; that 
the Viceroy had accepted from twelve States contingents of 
cavalry, infantry, sappers and transport, besides a camel corps 
from Bikanir, and that most of these had already embarked. 
It gave particular instances of the generosity and eager loyalty 
of the Chiefs. It stated that the same spirit had prevailed 
throughout British India. Hundreds of telegrams and letters 
had been received by the Viceroy, expressing loyalty and 
desire to serve the Government, either in the field or by 
co-operation in India. They came from communities and 
associations, religious, political and social, of all classes and 
creeds, also from individuals. offering their resources or 
asking for opportunity to prove their loyalty by personal 
service. 

In no previous war had the Government of India despatched 
overseas an expedition exceeding 18,000 in strength. But now 
an expeditionary force, consisting of two infantry and two 
cavalry divisions, fully organised and equipped, was provided 
for France. The two infantry divisions were accompanied by 
four field artillery brigades in excess of the normal allotment 
of artillery to divisions on the Indian establishment. Simul- 
taneously a mixed force was sent to East Africa and an infantry 
brigade to the head of the Persian Gulf. The latter was in- 
creased to a complete division after the declaration of war 
with Turkey. Moreover, a force of approximately six infantry 
brigades (including one composed of Imperial Service troops 
from Native States), and one Imperial Service Cavalry brigade, 
was despatched to Egypt. The strength of the troops sent 
abroad amounted to 23,500 British and 78,000 Indian ranks. 
In addition to the above, all but nine of the regular British 
Infantry battalions in India, as well as the bulk of the regular 
horse, field and heavy batteries, were sent to England to 
facilitate the expansion of the Army there. In exchange 29 


1 In 1911 Lord Kitchener estimated that 100,000 could be spared from India 
in such circumstances. Churchill’s World Crisis, p. 63. 


174 FROM 1914 


Territorial field batteries and 85 Territorial battalions were 
sent from England. 

The nature of the services of the Indian corps in France 
has thus been described by Lord Curzon: ‘ Neither should 
we forget the conditions under which these Indian soldiers 
served. They came to a country where the climate, the lan- 
guage, the people, the customs, were entirely different from 
any of which they had knowledge. They were presently faced 
with the sharp severity of a northern winter. They, who had 
never suffered heavy shell-fire, who had no experience of high- 
explosive, who had never seen warfare in the air, who were 
totally ignorant of modern trench-fighting, were exposed to all 
the latest and most scientific developments of the art of de- 
struction. . . . They were consoled by none of the amenities 
or alleviations, or even the associations of home. . . . They 
were plunged in surroundings which must have been intensely 
depressing to the spirit of man. Almost from the start they 
suffered shattering losses. In the face of these trials and 
difficulties the cheerfulness, the loyalty, the good discipline, 
the intrepid courage of these denizens of another clime cannot 
be too highly praised.’ } 

British officers with Indian regiments were, especially at 
first, very easily picked out by enemy snipers and machine- 
gunners. They suffered terribly. And when an Indian regi- 
ment had lost the greater number of its British officers, its value 
as a fighting force very seriously declined. In France therefore 
the original British element in brigades from India was largely 
strengthened. Casualties in all ranks were extremely heavy. 
The two divisions which landed at Marseilles in 1914 were 
24,000 strong. So severely did they suffer that in about eight 
months drafts, 30,000 strong in all, were needed to replace ~ 
casualties. The force was transferred to Mesopotamia, where 
it rendered further arduous service. 

But we must return to India as she stood in the critical 
winter of 1914-15. Although throughout the country the 
general attitude of the people was thoroughly friendly, and 
although the late Mr. B. G. Tilak, on release from prison in 
August, had disclaimed hostility to the Government and con- 
demned the acts of revolutionary violence which had previously 
been committed in various parts of India, the situation was not 
devoid of disquieting features. 

Before the close of the year 1914 Tilak and his followers 
endeavoured to obtain readmission to the Congress ‘‘ in order 


1 Indian Corps in France, p. ¥ii 


1914-15 175 


to organise obstruction to the Government in every possible 
direction within the limits of the law’? as a means of obtain- 
ing Swaraj. Working through the Congress, or by starting a 
new organisation to be called ‘‘the National League,’ the 
leader of the Extremists hoped to bring the administration to 
a standstill and compel capitulation of the authorities. But 
his hour had not yet come. The Madras Congress of 1914 
(in which he took no share) reflected the loyal spirit of the 
Moderates who had vanquished him in 1908. 

Northern India, however, was menaced by certain dangers. 
In Calcutta intermittent revolutionary activity was stimulated 
by the successful theft of 50 Mauser pistols and 46,000 rounds 
of Mauser ammunition from the warehouse of a firm of gun- 
makers, In the Punjab grave peril speedily took shape. Its 
prelude was the disastrous Budge-budge riot in Bengal, the 
incidents of which are particularly instructive. 

For some years Sikhs and Punjabis, attracted by hope of high 
wages and a spirit of adventure, had been emigrating to the 
Far East, America, Canada and British Columbia. Various 
Indian settlers in these countries had been led to believe that 
India could be converted to a Utopia where all would be equal, 
and plague and famine would cease to exist, if only the British 
could be expelled. For three years an Indian revolutionary 
association had been working in the United States for the 
promotion of rebellion and murder in India and had circulated 
a newspaper, The Ghadr (War), in furtherance of this cause. 
In Canada certain immigration laws were much resented by 
Indian colonists ; and a Sikh named Gurdit Singh, who originally 
came from the Amritsar district of the Punjab and had for 
some time carried on business as a contractor in Singapore 
and the Malay States, determined to challenge those laws, 
He chartered a Japanese vessel, named the Komagata Maru, 
and on April 29, 1914, sailed from Hong Kong to Vancouver 
with a shipload of 351 Sikh and 21 Punjab Muhammadan 
emigrants, ignoring the fact that Asiatics who wished to be 
allowed to settle in Canada must satisfy the authorities that 
they had travelled from their own country on a through ticket. 
The Komagata Maru took in all her passengers at various far- 
eastern ports. She also received consignments of the Ghadr 
newspaper, and at Yokohama was boarded by two Indian 
revolutionaries from the United States. 

On May 23 she arrived at Vancouver, but the local authori- 


1 See Life of Sir Pherozeshah Mehta (Mody), vol. ii, pp, 654-56 (letter of Mr. 
Gokhale), 


176 FROM 1914 


ties would only allow landing in a few cases, as the immigrants 
had ignored the requirements of the Law. While protests were 
proceeding, revolutionary literature was introduced and circu- 
lated on board; and it was only when a Government vessel 
with armed force was requisitioned that the Komagata Maru 
passengers would allow their captain to weigh anchor. 

On July 23, in a very bad temper, they started on their 
return journey to Asia with an ample stock of provisions 
supplied by the Canadian Government. The ship made for 
Calcutta. On September 27, 1914, she arrived at the mouth 
of the Hughli and two days later was moored at Budge-budge. 
The passengers largely refused to enter a special train which 
was waiting to carry them, free of cost, to the Punjab. Many 
were armed with American revolvers and wished to march on 
Calcutta, furious with a Government which was in no way 
responsible for their disappointment; but to their minds the 
Governments of the United Kingdom, British India and the 
Colonies were all one and the same. Permission for their 
march was refused. A riot ensued in which eighteen Sikh 
passengers were killed. Sixty emigrants got off in the train ; 
some were arrested, but the majority were soon at large in 
the Punjab. 

News of the affray spread rapidly with exaggerations, an 
produced an unfortunate effect. Thousands of other emigrants 
rapidly returned to the Punjab from Canada, the United States, 
the Philippines, Hong Kong and China, many of whom had 
been more or less infected by revolutionary propaganda. 
Endeavours were made to control such arrivals by means of 
an ingress ordinance; but effectual discrimination was im- 
practicable. A section of the new arrivals in the Punjab 
speedily made its presence felt. The first of a long series of 
outrages occurred on the night of October 16, when a railway- 
station was attacked, the station-master shot and the cash 
carried off. 

Of the Punjab people 11 per cent. were Sikhs, 33 per cent. 
were Hindus and 55 per cent. were Muhammadans. Its urban 
populations were known to contain disaffected elements. Its 
agriculturists had long supplied some of the finest soldiers in 
the Army. Excitable by nature, they are peculiarly sus- 
ceptible to impassioned appeal. On Turkey’s adhesion to the 
cause of Germany, the Government had endeavoured to soothe 
Muhammadan sentiment by announcing that the holy places 
of Arabia and shrines of Mesopotamia would be immune from 
attack by Great Britain and her allies so long as Indian pil- 


1914-15 177 


grims to those venerated places remained unmolested. Now, 
however, a new danger threatened the Punjab. 

Taking counsel with revolutionists from Bengal, some re- 
turned emigrants prepared to strike without delay. Mail- 
bags were robbed; attempts were made to derail trains ; 
soldiers were solicited to renounce their allegiance; a bomb- 
factory was established ; gang-robberies rapidly increased; a 
campaign of seditious violence was supported by the lawless 
elements of the populace ; a declaration of war was drawn up ; 
instruments for destroying railways and telegraph wires were 
collected. Simultaneous risings were planned. But fortu- 
nately the Punjab was in firm and resolute hands. Armed, 
after two earnest applications, with extensive powers under a 
special Defence of India Act, the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir 
Michael O’Dwyer, and his officers, with the assistance of the 
loyal majority and of the Rulers of the Punjab States, effectually 
baffled the whole conspiracy. Its ramifications were only 
apparent later when nine batches of the revolutionists were 
brought to trial. 

For a brief space these troubles affected Sikh recruiting 
unfavourably; but their influence was counteracted by the 
news of the noble self-sacrifice of the 14th Sikhs at Gallipoli ; 
and before the close of 1915 the Punjab was quiet. In that 
year this province contributed 46,000 out of 93,000 combatants 
recruited in all India. In 1916 it gave 50,000 out of 104,000. 
A source of danger had been converted into a source of strength. 

In other parts of India a vague sense of insecurity had found 
expression in large withdrawals from savings banks and had 
been increased by the exploits of the German cruiser Emden 
at Penang and Madras, and her captures of British shipping. 
Her achievements were magnified by popular rumour; and 
when, on November 9, 1914, she was destroyed by the Sydney, 
the service rendered to India’s seaboard by the British Navy 
was thoroughly appreciated. 

Revolutionary activity in Bengal and the Punjab necessi- 
tated the passing by the Imperial Legislative Council in March 
1915 of a *‘ Criminal Law Amendment Act”’ which corresponded 
to the British Defence of the Realm Act. The powers which 
it gave to the Executive were to last during the continuance of 
the war and for six months after its close. 

An invasion by some frontier tribesmen in 1915 terminated 
in two British-Indian victories. Revolutionary crimes con- 
tinued in Bengal; and in the North-west Frontier Province 
the participation of Turkey in the war produced subdued but 


IN—12 


178 FROM 1914 


constant ferment. But the harvests of 1915 were good; and 
the masses generally became less apprehensive as the war went 
on without disturbing their sheltered lives. Across the seas 
war-operations in Mesopotamia were demanding increasing 
attention from the Government of India. 

On November 22, 1914, Basra had been occupied by a British- 
Indian division after various skirmishes. The oil-installation 
in the island of Abadan in the Persian Gulf, belonging to the 
Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which was of special importance 
to the British Admiralty, had previously been secured. The 
town of Kurma, 50 miles above Basra at the junction of the 
Tigris and Euphrates, was next occupied, and thus the contro] 
of the whole navigable waterway to the Gulf was ensured. 
The British-Indian force on the spot was gradually strengthened 
by a second division, and later was reorganised as an Army 
Corps. On April 9, 1915, General Sir John Nixon took com- 
mand. 

After more fighting the position of the whole force was 
consolidated ; but medical equipment and river-steamer trans- 
port were both inadequate. The idea then was to control 
completely the lower part of Mesopotamia, the Basra Pro- 
vince; a plan, however, was to be prepared for a prospective 
advance on Baghdad. It was also desired to secure the safety 
of the oil-fields, pipe-line and refineries of the Anglo-Persian 
Oil Company. In pursuance of all these objects, Amara and 
Nasariyah were occupied; and on September 29, 1915, Qut- 
el-Amara was captured, after severe fighting, by an advanced 
force under General Townshend. All these successes had been 
achieved by striking quickly and continuously. ‘‘ Audacity 
had accomplished wonders. Was there any limit to its possi- 
bilities ?’? + It was now determined to embark on an adven- 
turous offensive and to march on Baghdad. The history of 
this change of purpose is written in the Report of the Meso- 
potamian Commission. 

But already river-transport and medical equipment had 
proved deficient. The new enterprise emphasised these de- 
ficiencies. It failed; and after much gallant effort General 
Townshend was driven back to Qut-el-Amara with a loss of 
over 30 per cent. of his force. His sick, wounded and prisoners 
were evacuated and sent downstream to Basra. His cavalry 
brigade departed ; and with the rest of his troops he remained 
to hold Qut-el-Amara on the understanding that he would be 
relieved as soon as possible, with the aid of reinforcements from 

1 Report of the Mesopotamian Commission. 


1914-15 ie 


France and elsewhere. Qut-el-Amara was definitely invested 
by the Turks on December 7, 1915. 

Politics were entirely quiescent in 1915. In December the 
Congress and Muslim League met at Bombay. The President 
of the former body, the present Lord Sinha, said that an ideal 
was required to satisfy the ambitions of the rising generation 
and arrest anarchism, That ideal should be the establishment 
of democracy “‘ pure and simple.” At present, however, India 
was unfit for self-government. Free from England, and with 
no real power of resistance, she would be immediately in the 
thick of another struggle of nations. A committee was ap- 
pointed to consider a ‘‘ Home Rule’’ scheme propounded by 
Mrs. Annie Besant, a lady long prominent in Indian politics ; 
and arrangements were made to facilitate the return of the 
Kixtremists to the Congress fold. It was understood that their 
leaders had accepted colonial self-government as their objec- 
tive. 

The speech of the President of the Muslim League emphasised 
the need for ‘‘ self-government suitable to the needs of the 
country under the egis of the British Crown,” and concluded 
with expression of the hope that when peace came, Muslim 
countries would be dealt with in such a way as to preserve 
their dignity. 


XXI 
THE DECLARATION OF 1917 


Durine the first three months of 1916 things went well in 
India, although the unsuccessful attempts to relieve General 
Townshend’s much-tried force in Qut-el-Amara were dis- 
heartening. 

Early in April Lord Hardinge of Penshurst left India after 
an eventful and arduous viceroyalty which had lasted five years 
and six months. In bidding farewell to his Legislative Council 
he emphasised the fact that the development of self-governing 
institutions elsewhere had been achieved not by sudden strokes 
of statesmanship, but by a process of steady and patient 
evolution which had gradually united and raised all classes of 
the community. 

One effect of the publication of the Report of the Mesopo- 
tamian Commission was to depreciate the services which Lord 
Hardinge rendered to India and his own country during the 


180 FROM 1914 


first two years of war. It is easy to be wise after the event, 
to point out that more confidence should have been shown at 
such and such a juncture, more use might have been made 
of resources, too much regard was paid to possibilities in India 
itself and too little to the needs of the Empire at large. But 
the Viceroy who steered the Indian Empire through the un- 
tracked seas of the first twenty months of a world-wide war 
deserves well of England. All through, Lord Hardinge’s 
bearing was firm and courageous; his personal influence was 
distinct and strong; his popularity with Indians contributed 
materially to the tranquillity of the political atmosphere. To 
the day of his departure he worthily upheld the prestige of 
his great office. He had been staunchly supported by succes- 
sive Secretaries of State, first by Lord Crewe and afterwards 
by Mr. Austen Chamberlain. 

He was succeeded by Lord Chelmsford, who, on the date of 
his appointment, had been for a year and more serving in India 
as Captain in a territorial regiment. The new Viceroy had 
previously been Governor of Queensland and New South Wales. 
He brought to his onerous task unlimited zeal and industry 
as well as the idea that it was incumbent on the Imperial 
Government to make a new departure, to declare a goal or 
objective for British rule in India. The subject of post-war 
reforms had been discussed by Lord Hardinge’s Government. 
Various ideas had been explored ; but no particular objective 
had been laid down. Now Lord Chelmsford took the matter 
up and pressed for a declaration of the kind which he desired. 

It was some time before any word of Lord Chelmsford’s 
aims reached the Indian public. Early in his administration 
revolutionary crime in Calcutta and Bengal at last received 
a decisive check from vigorous measures adopted under the 
Defence of India Act. 

On April 29, 1916, Qut-el-Amara fell to the Turks after a 
gallant and tenacious defence of 147 days. The relieving force 
had been weak in artillery, high-explosive shells and other 
appliances. The transport, too, had been inadequate, and the 
weather had been unpropitious. After the capture of the 
place, a defensive policy was adopted by the General in com- 
mand of the relieving force. River and railway communica- 
tions, supply and medical organisation, were gradually im- 
proved. Early in the preceding February the War Office had 
relieved the Indian Government of control of the expedition. 
In August a Commission was appointed in England to enquire 
into the “origin, inception and conduct” of the Mesopo- 


THE DECLARATION OF 1917 18] 


tamian operations, together with the responsibility of the 
departments of Government concerned therein. 

Neither the siege of Qut nor its disastrous termination 
produced any visible effect in India. 

In June 1916 it became known in India that the Grand 
Sharif of Mecca had revolted from the spiritual and temporal 
suzerainty (Khilafat) of the Sultan of Turkey. The Grand 
Sharif was chief of the Arabs of the Hejaz, and belongs to the 
Koreish tribe which the Prophet Muhammad designated as his 
heirs. For long the Sultans and Sharifs had acted in harmony, 
the Sharifs acknowledging the Khilafat of the Sultans in return 
for protection and subsidies. In early times, however, the 
Ottoman Sultans had not assumed the title of Khalifa, and the 
Hejaz had owed them no allegiance. 

The reasons for the Sharif’s revolt were defined, in a pro- 
clamation which he subsequently issued, to be the proceedings 
of the Turkish Committee of Union and Progress, their depar- 
ture from the principles of the Koran, their contumelious treat- 
ment of the Sultan, their *“‘ bloody and inhuman outrages on 
Muslims.” It was natural that the British Government should 
sympathise with the Sharif. They were aware that the Turks 
and Germans purposed to make the Hejaz and Yemen coasts 
the basis of attacks on British vessels and commerce. The 
Allies had of course undertaken to respect the safety and 
sanctity of the holy places of Islam in Arabia; but these were 
now in jeopardy from other sources, and the Hejaz was in 
danger of Turko-German military occupation. 

The rebellion, however, was keenly resented by Muhammadan 
politicians in India. They considered that it might lead to 
desecration of the holy places, and they resented a telegram 
which had appeared in a newspaper to the effect that the 
Calcutta Muslims sympathised with the Sharif. They believed 
that the Sharif had acted with British encouragement, and 
were unaware of the grave military considerations involved. 
They considered the Sharif incapable of maintaining indepen- 
dent sovereignty over the sacred places in Mesopotamia and 
Arabia. On June 27 a public meeting, convened at Lucknow, 
the headquarters of the Muslim League, condemned the revolt 
and those who sympathised therewith as enemies of Islam. 

The promoters of this movement were, however, plainly 
informed that such an agitation amounted to working on 
behalf of the enemies of His Majesty the King-Emperor and 
could not be tolerated. The warning was believed and there- 
fore proved efficacious. The agitation was not taken up by 


182 FROM 1914 


the religious leaders, and consequently at that time took no 
root among the masses. 

From April 1916 onwards Mrs. Besant and Tilak indus- 
triously pushed on a new ‘‘ Home Rule’’ movement by news- 
papers and speeches. The tone of these effusions soon brought 
each into conflict with the law. Mrs. Besant forfeited security 
deposited under the provisions of the Press Act. Tilak was 
bound over by a district magistrate to give substantial security 
for his good behaviour, but the order was revoked by the 
Bombay High Court. Every effort was made by the Home 
Rulers to enlist schoolboys and students among their adherents. 
The doctrine taught was that British rule in India, as then 
established, was injurious to liberty, and that an effective 
demand for Home Rule must be organised without delay. 
Excitement among the political classes culminated in the 
December gatherings at Lucknow. 

We have now arrived at the beginning of a new stage in 
the domestic history of India during the Great War. This 
stage was reached at a time when absolute tranquillity pre- 
vailed among the general population of the country. The 
harvests of 1916 were good; the people were peaceful and 
contented. The existing system of administration, solely re- 
sponsible to the Parliament of Great Britain, had carried India 
through the sharpest of tests so successfully as to vindicate 
itself effectually from countless slanders whereby it had been 
assailed. We shall now trace the course of events which were 
to bring it to an end with surprising rapidity. 

For two years and more the political classes had preserved 
a well-nigh unbroken silence. But under the stimulating 
influence of the Home Rule movement they now lifted up their 
voice. They did not belong to the fighting races from which 
Indian War Contingents had been drawn; and while they took 
pride in the achievements of those contingents, they were be- 
ginning to wonder what implications the constant assertions 
that Britain and her allies were fighting the battle of democracy 
would carry for India. Their leaders had also conceived the 
idea that peace might come suddenly, and that if it found them 
without regularly formulated and published demands, it would 
bring them inconsiderable gains. The Irish rebellion of the 
preceding April and the subsequent policy of the Imperial 
Cabinet had attracted their keen attention. A bold and 
acquisitive policy of the Besant-Tilak order seemed most likely 
to bear substantial fruit. 

With the Congress and Muslim League meetings of December 


THE DECLARATION OF 1917 183 


1916, which were held at Lucknow, we enter on a new phase 
of domestic affairs. It was then that, advancing far beyond 
the limits suggested by the cautious utterances of a year before, 
both bodies, composing all differences, declared together for 
‘“Home Rule.” At the same time Congress Moderates and 
Extremists proclaimed their reunion. The proceedings of all 
the meetings were orderly and the speeches composed in tone ; 
but there were evidences that although the Extremists had 
accepted the ideal of the Moderates, the former had in fact 
prevailed over the latter. The reception accorded to Mr. Tilak 
far exceeded in enthusiasm the welcome given to any other 
Nationalist leader. 

A list of demands was formulated by the Congress and 
Muslim League in consultation and was publicly accepted. 
These demands were based on the claim that India must become 
a self-governing, independent unit of the British Empire and 
embodied much that was afterwards conceded. After long 
private discussion, the leaders of the two bodies agreed on 
separate electorates for Muhammadans. They also set 
forth the proportion of the seats to be reserved for these 
electorates. 

Speakers on both bodies complained of the measures adopted 
under the Defence of India Act, but did not suggest any 
alternative arrangement. The Chairman of the Muslim League, 
in allusion to recent events in Arabia and Mesopotamia, asked 
that Muhammadans might be allowed to choose their own 
Khalifa. Both associations decided to co-operate with the 
Home Rule League. Favoured by the sense of self-esteem 
produced by the conduct of Indian soldiers during the war, the 
effect of these meetings was to spread and intensify nationalist 
doctrines among the educated classes. 

While the politicians had been holding their meetings, the 
country had been entirely quiet, and the Government had 
been mainly absorbed in war activities. An Industrial Com- 
mission, appointed on May 19, 1916, in order to examine and 
report upon the possibilities of further industrial development, 
had begun to tour the country. At the February 1917 sessions 
of the Imperial Legislative Council, Lord Chelmsford announced 
that the Report of the Royal Commission on Public Services 
appointed in 1912, which had just been published, would be 
carefully considered. The. increased employment of Indians 
in the higher branches of the service would be taken into con- 
sideration without delay. The expediency of broadening the 
basis of government and the demand of Indians to play a 


184 FROM 1914 


large part in public affairs were receiving attention. An 
Indian War Loan would soon be launched ; and a Defence Force 
would be organised which would include Indians. India would 
be represented by three selected delegates at the coming War 
Conference in London. 

The sessions proceeded smoothly. Sir William Meyer, the 
Finance Member, announced that on March 1, in pursuance of 
resolutions moved by Indian non-official members and carried 
on September 8, 1914, and February 24, 1915, the Government 
of India had informed the home Government of their willing- 
ness to borrow the largest sums that could be raised as a War 
Loan, in order to make a special contribution of £100,000,000. 
They would also put forward proposals for increasing Indian 
resources in order to meet the consequent recurring liabilities. 
One method of meeting the contribution would be the raising 
of the impost on cotton fabrics from 84 to 7} per cent., the 
general Indian tariff rate. But the cotton excise duty would 
remain 38$ per cent. A grievance of twenty years’ standing 
which had virtually meant protection for Lancashire was thus 
removed. The announcement was received with enthusiasm, 
and the financial proposals were approved. Before the sessions 
closed came the news of revolution in Russia and of the taking 
of Baghdad by British and Indian troops. 

Outside, however, the press was in a bad humour. A depu- 
tation approached the Viceroy on March 5, asking for repeal 
of the Press Act, and His Excellency in a carefully reasoned 
reply pointed out that there were still journals in circulation 
which ascribed all evils to the course of an alien Government, 
which deliberately encouraged a lack of discipline and of 
respect for all authority among impressionable boys, thereby 
swelling the ranks of secret revolutionaries. He therefore re- 
jected the petition in firm but courteous terms. Resentment 
was expressed; and Mrs. Besant busily pursued her Home 
Rule campaign, in such a manner as gradually to persuade the 
Government of Madras, the headquarters of her activities, that 
she was doing serious mischief. She was, therefore, together 
with her two principal lieutenants, directed to take up her 
residence in one of various specified healthy localities, to cease 
lecturing and publishing and to submit her correspondence to 
censorship. She took leave of her public in a letter to the 
press in which she described herself as having been ‘‘ drafted 
into the modern equivalent for the Middle Ages oubliette.”’ 
Indian taxation to pay the interest on the War Loan would 
be crushing. She had striven for Home Rule after the war 


THE DECLARATION OF 1917 185 


as only by that could India be saved from becoming “‘ a nation 
of coolies for the enrichment of others.” 

Mrs. Besant’s internment had been preceded by the return 
from the Imperial War Conference of the delegates selected 
by the Government of India, His Highness the Maharajah of 
Bikanir, Sir James (now Lord) Meston, Lieutenant-Governor 
of the United Provinces, and Sir Satyendra (now Lord) Sinha, 
then Member of the Bengal Executive Council. For the first 
time an Indian Prince and an Indian Member of Council had 
shared in the innermost deliberations of the Empire. But this 
auspicious event in no way allayed the vigorous agitation among 
the political classes which followed on the internment of Mrs. 
Besant. Passive resistance even was proposed and discussed. 

In the meantime the Mesopotamian Commission had reported 
in England, to the effect that Lord Hardinge’s government 
had struggled hard to wage war on a peace-budget, that thus 
the wants of the Mesopotamian Expedition had, during the 
first sixteen months of the operations, been provided for in- 
sufficiently. “‘ The Government of India rather than the 
governed had been laggards.’ Various measures recently 
taken by Lord Chelmsford and his advisers should have been 
adopted by their predecessors. The Commission animad- 
verted on the system of military administration in control 
of the Indian Army. Their report justified in the fullest 
manner the determined opposition of Lord Curzon in 1905 to 
the abolition of the Military Member of Council. It is safe to 
say that but for that disastrous step, Lord Hardinge and his 
Government would have occupied a far stronger position for 
appreciating accurately the military requirements of a most 
difficult situation. 

The Mesopotamia Report was considered in both Houses of 
Parliament. It was keenly debated, and led, among other 
’ things, to the resignation of Mr. Austen Chamberlain, who 
was succeeded as Secretary of State of India by the Hon. 
Kdwin Samuel Montagu. Mr. Montagu had previously served 
as Under-Secretary of State for India, had visited that country, 
and had taken a prominent part in the recent debate, urging 
that the whole system of government in India should be explored 
in the light of the Report. That system was, he said, insuffi- 
cient and wooden. It was not elastic enough to express the 
will of the Indian people, to make them into a warring nation 
as they wanted to be. They must be allowed growing control 
of the Executive. The creation of self-governing provinces 
co-ordinated with the Ruling States by a Central Government 


186 FROM 1914 


should be declared to be the goal of British rule in India. A 
substantial step should be taken towards it. 

Mr. Chamberlain, in following Mr. Montagu, urged the House 
not to make the discussion of the Report the text for a great 
debate upon the future of the Indian Empire. The question 
of political reforms in India, to be carried out after the close 
of the war, was under the consideration of the Cabinet. But 
‘“nothing but injury could come to National, Imperial and 
Indian interests from mixing up a debate on a military break- 
down, or alleged military mismanagement, with the question 
of the whole future fabric of Indian Government.” The effect 
of the debate was to diffuse the wrong impression that the 
whole existing system of Government in India was responsible 
for the Kut catastrophe. 

Shortly after Mr. Montagu’s assumption of office, on 
August 20, 1917, two memorable announcements were made 
by the Secretary of State for India. The first stated that 
the policy of His Majesty’s Government was that of increasing 
association of Indians in every branch of administration ; and 
the gradual development of self-governing institutions, with a 
view to the progressive realisation of responsible government 
in India as an integral part of the British Empire. Substantial 
steps in this direction would be taken as soon as possible. 
The Secretary of State would proceed to India to discuss with 
the Viceroy what those steps should be. Progress in the new 
policy could only be achieved by successive stages. “* The 
British Government and the Government of India, on whom 
the responsibility lies for the welfare and advancement of the 
Indian peoples, must be the judges of the time and measure of 
each advance, and they must be guided by the measure of 
co-operation received from those upon whom the new oppor- 
tunities of service will thus be conferred, and by the extent 
to which it is found that confidence can be reposed in their 
sense of responsibility. Ample opportunity will be afforded 
for public discussion of the proposals which will be submitted 
in due course to Parliament.” 

The second announcement related to the removal of the 
bar which had up till then precluded the admission of Indians 
to commissioned rank in His Majesty’s Army. 

The September sessions of the Legislative Council opened 
with a speech by Lord Chelmsford which contained a remark- 
able record of war-activities. He concluded with an earnest 
appeal to leading politicians for co-operation and for the pro- 
motion of calm and dispassionate consideration of the difficult 


THE DECLARATION OF 1917 187 


problems which were to be investigated during Mr. Montagu’s 
stay in India. The Viceroy’s speech had been preceded by the 
announcement made by the Home Member of Council that 
Mrs. Besant and her coadjutors would be released from all 
restrictions if the Government of India were satisfied that 
they would abstain from unconstitutional and violent methods 
of political agitation during the remainder of the war. They 
were released. 

Before the arrival of the Secretary of State violent Hindu- 
Muslim riots broke out in Bihar, over cow-killing, an old cause 
of contention. The riots were on a scale which far exceeded 
any previous trouble of the same kind, and were undoubtedly 
largely due to a belief that Britain was exhausted by the 
efforts of the war, and that British rule was sinking into weak- 
ness and decline. The Hindus were the aggressors; the 
Muhammadans were on the defensive throughout. In other 
provinces things were quiet. 


XXII 
THE REFORMS PROPOSALS 


THE object of Mr. Montagu’s visit to India was to decide on 
the spot, and in consultation with the Viceroy, what steps 
should be taken in the direction of establishing in India a 
Government responsible to the various peoples of the sub- 
continent. He arrived with a small party of helpers, late in 
the year 1917, and after preliminary conferences with the 
Government and the heads of provinces, visited Calcutta, 
Madras and Bombay. The party was accompanied by the 
Viceroy and the Home Member of His Excellency’s Executive 
Council. At each halting-place various officials and non- 
officials were consulted ; and it was not until the end of April 
1918 that the Secretary of State returned to England. 

The tour attracted universal attention. It was understood 
that the old order had been sentenced to death. So European 
non-officials and many Indian communities had appointed 
representative councils to draw up petitions embodying their 
proposals for the future. The Viceroy and Secretary of State 
were beset by demands that in the new era, which had been 
announced, the interests of numerous sections of society should 
not be left to the arbitrament of any general numerical majority. 
Not only Europeans, but Muhammadans, Sikhs, Marathas, 
Eurasians, Indian Christians, depressed classes, the tenants of 


188 FROM 1914 


the Deccan and others, expressed a firm conviction that from 
territorial electorates they would not meet with fair considera- 
tion. 

The Congress and Muslim League recommended a constitu- 
tion which would embody the provisions framed at their meet- 
ings of 1916. In December 1917 both bodies met at Calcutta. 
The attendance was large, but the Moderates and Extremists 
were unhappy together. 

In March and April 1918 the British reverses in France 
arrested the attention of the whole country; and in the latter 
month the Viceroy, at the instance of the Prime Minister of 
the United Kingdom, summoned the ruling chiefs and the 
leading non-official representatives of India to a conference at 
Delhi. The object was to arrange that all possible assistance 
in the shape of men, money and supplies should be given to 
the cause of the Allies. The Conference took place after the 
return of the Secretary of State to England. Sub-committees 
were appointed to devise ways and means; and speeches were 
delivered, which breathed a spirit of loyalty to the British 
Crown. A Home-Leaguer, however, employed the opportunity 
to propose a resolution recommending to the British Govern- 
ment immediate introduction into Parliament of a Bill ‘‘ meet- 
ing the demands of the people for the establishment of a re- 
sponsible Government in India within a reasonable and specified 
period.” The resolution was disallowed by the Viceroy as 
foreign to the purposes of the Conference. 

Conferences were also held at provincial centres. <A great 
impulse was given to war-efforts of all kinds, especially recruit- 
ing, which made remarkable progress in the United Provinces 
and Punjab; but simultaneously the Home Rule Leaguers 
manifested a growing intention to turn the difficulties of the 
hour to political advantage. The differences which had in fact 
never ceased to exist between them and many Moderates 
widened. The Reforms proposals were published on July 8 
and were greeted with contumely by the Home Rule leaders, 
but were welcomed by the Moderates, who decided not to 
attend the special Congress which was to be arranged for dis- 
cussion of the scheme, as the Home Rule League and its branches 
had captured the various provincial Congress Committees. 
They intended, however, themselves to ask for some alterations 
in the scheme. 

The first part of the Report of the Viceroy and Secretary 
of State consisted of a lucid statement of the situation. The 
second part set forth the following proposals : 


THE REFORMS PROPOSALS 189 
(a) Local Self-government 


In local bodies (Municipal and District Boards) there should 
be complete popular control and the largest possible indepen- 
dence of outside control. The new policy must be to allow 
these boards to learn by their own mistakes and to interfere 
only in cases of grave mismanagement. The district officer 
must accept the position of an onlooker. 


(b) The Provinces 


In each province an enlarged Legislative Council should 
be established, differing in size and composition from province 
to province, with a substantial non-official majority chosen 
by direct election on a broad franchise, modified by such com- 
munal and special representation as might be necessary. The 
exact composition of each Council would be determined by 
the Secretary of State in Council on the recommendation of 
the Government of India, after investigation by a specially 
appointed Franchise Committee which would determine the 
composition of the electorates as well as of the Councils. 

At the head of a Provincial Executive would be a Governor 
with an Executive Council of two members, one Englishman 
and one Indian, both nominated by the Governor. Associated 
with the Executive Council as part of the Government would 
be one or more Ministers chosen by the Governor from among 
the elected members of the Legislative Council and holding 
office for three years, the term of that Council. 

The functions of the Provincial Government would be 
divided into those which might immediately be made over to 
ministerial control and those which for the present must remain 
in official hands. Functions would be called ‘“ transferred ” 
and ‘‘ reserved.” The former would be such departments as 
education or local self-government which ‘‘ afford most oppor- 
tunity for local knowledge or social service, in which serious 
mistakes would not be irremediable, which stand most in 
need of development.’ The latter would be such subjects as 
law and order or revenue administration. The Governor-in- 
Council would have charge of the “‘ reserved’’ functions. The 
control of the ‘‘ transferred’? functions would lie with the 
Governor and his Ministers. In regard to these the Governor 
would meet the wishes of his Ministers to the fullest possible 
extent. He could, however, veto their proposals if necessary. 

The division of functions into “‘ reserved’ and *‘ transferred ”’ 


190 FROM 1914 


would be carried out on the report of a Committee similar in 
constitution to the proposed Franchise Committee, with which 
it would work in close co-operation. 

Elaborate proposals were framed for securing the passage 
of necessary legislation, which were subsequently discarded in 
favour of less cumbrous arrangements. 

The Governor could dissolve a Legislative Council. The 
assent of the Governor, the Governor-General, and the Crown, 
through the Secretary of State, would be necessary for all 
provincial legislation. 

The provincial budget would be framed by the Executive 
Government as a whole. The first charge would be the con- 
tribution to the central Government. Then would come the 
supply for reserved subjects; but so far as transferred subjects 
were concerned, the allocation of supply would rest with the 
Ministers. The budget would then be laid before the Council, 
and voted by resolution. It could be altered by resolution, 
except in regard to such allotment for reserved subjects as the 
Governor considered necessary. 

It was intended that as the popular element on the Govern- 
ment acquired knowledge and experience, functions would be 
taken from the reserved list and placed upon the transferred 
list, until at length the reserved functions would disappear 
and the goal of complete provincial responsibility would be 
reached. 


(c) The Central Government 


For the Government of India it was proposed to create an 
enlarged ‘‘ Legislative Assembly’? with an elected majority, 
and to reserve for the decision of a new ‘* Council of State,”’ 
on which Government would command a bare majority, only 
those measures which Government must retain power to carry 
in discharge of its continued responsibility for the good ad- 
ministration of the country. Resolutions of the Assembly 
would have force only as recommendations whether in regard 
to fiscal or other matters. It was proposed to admit a second 
Indian member to the Viceroy’s Executive Council. Pending 
the development of responsible Government in the provinces, 
the Central Government must remain responsible only to 
Parliament. 

Electorates and constituencies for the Central Legislature 
should be determined by the coming Franchise and Functions 
Committees. The strength of the Legislative Assembly would 
be about a hundred; the maximum number of nominated 


THE REFORMS PROPOSALS 191 


officials thereon would be two-ninths; the lifetime of each 
Assembly would be three years. 

The Council of State would be composed “ of about fifty 
members exclusive of the Governor-General,” who would be 
President. Not more than twenty-five members would be 
officials, and four would be nominated by the Governor-General. 
The Council of State would possess a senatorial character ; and 
the qualifications of candidates for election would be framed 
so as to secure men of a status and position worthy of a revis- 
ing chamber. Five years would be the normal duration of a 
Council of State. 

Parliament and the Secretary of State must be prepared to 
forgo control in respect of matters in which responsibility 
was now to be transferred to Indian representative bodies. 
This process would continue as responsibility in the provinces, 
and eventually in the Central Government, gradually developed. 
The India Office would be reorganised. A Committee would 
examine its position, and make proposals. The salary of the 
Secretary of State would be defrayed from home revenues, 
and voted annually by the Imperial Parliament. A Select 
Committee of the House of Commons would provide informed 
criticism and discussion of questions connected with India. 


The Native States 


There would be a Council of Princes, a consultative body 
meeting ordinarily once a year to discuss agenda with the 
Viceroy, who would be President. The Viceroy might, when 
he thought fit, arrange for joint deliberation and discussion 
between the Council of State and the Council of Princes. 

Appointments would be made to all branches of the public 
service without racial distinction. Thirty-three per cent. of 
the recruits for the covenanted Civil Service would be recruited 
in India, and this percentage would be increased by one and 
a half per cent. annually for ten years. In other services 
there would be a fixed percentage of Indian recruitment, rising 
annually. 

It was further proposed that ten years after the first meeting 
of the new Councils a Committee should be appointed by 
Parliament to enquire into the working of all these reforms, 
and to report to Parliament thereon. The further course of 
constitutional development in the country would be investi- 
gated by similar Committees appointed at intervals of not 
more than ten years. The authors of the report expressed 
the view that ‘“‘so far in the future as any man can foresee, 


¥ 


192 FROM 1914 


a strong element of Europeans would be required in the public 
services. The continued presence of the British officer was 
essential if the Indian people were to be made self-governing.” 
The reformers strongly condemned communal electorates, but 
conceded these to the Muhammadans in provinces where the 
latter are in a minority, and to the Sikhs in the Punjab. In 
the former case they were bound by previous pledges; in the 
latter they were moved by the military services which the 
Sikhs, a very small community, had rendered to the Empire. 

The Report explained the chief difficulties presented by the 
problem to be solved. British India had two and a half times 
the population of the United States. Two of its major pro- 
vinces held each as many people as the British Isles. But 
whereas in England and Wales four-fifths of the people lived 
in towns, 226,000,000 out of 244,000,000 of people in British 
India lived a rural life, and only a very small proportion of 
these ever gave a thought to matters beyond the horizon of 
their villages. In one province, it was reported, 93 per cent. 
of the people lived and died in the place where they were born. 
Many knew of no executive power above the district officer, 
and had never heard of Parliament or even of the Legislative 
Councils. 

The reformers quoted Lord Dufferin’s picture of the races, 
castes and creeds which divide Indian society, but held that 
its colours had since toned down. A sense of unity had grown 
which was displacing the idea of ordained separation. It was 
fostered by growing communion of thought among educated 
Indians, and between educated India and England. On the 
other hand, in some tracts of India it would be fantasy to 
dream of representative institutions; and everywhere there 
were people too ignorant and ‘‘ depressed’? to be included 
within the limits of any franchise. At the census of 1911 
only 6 per cent. of the population of British India had been 
able to read and write a letter in their own script. The pro- 
portion had since risen. But it was clear that the political 
changes contemplated by the Declaration must end in disaster 
unless accompanied by an educational campaign directed to 
awakening in all classes, especially in agriculturists, a sense of 
citizenship. Both officials and candidates for election must 
assist in this campaign. The peasant must learn how to use 
his vote. An immense work of education must be done in 
the countryside, which could be, and ought to be, undertaken 
by educated Indians themselves. 

It now probably would be, because there was no education 


THE REFORMS PROPOSALS 193 


like responsibility. The reformers held that the logic of events, 
the implication of past reforms, the professions of Allied states- 
men, contributed to make the momentous departure already 
prescribed by the Declaration imperative. ‘°‘ We believe pro- 
foundly,” they said, ‘* that the time has now come when the 
sheltered existence which we have given India cannot be 
prolonged without damage to her national life; ... that 
nationhood within the Empire represents something better 
than anything India has hitherto attained; that the placid, 
pathetic contentment of the masses is not the soil on which 
Indian nationhood will grow, and that in deliberately disturb- 
ing it, we are working for her highest good.’ The principle 
now widely known as Dyarchy, in accordance with which a 
provincial government would be divided into two wings re- 
sponsible, one to the Government of India and the Secretary 
of State, the other to the provincial electorate, would provide 
a vessel on which an adventurous voyage could immediately 
be undertaken. No time should be lost in launching this 
vessel. The distant haven was a sisterhood of self-governing 
States presided over by a central Government increasingly 
responsible to the populations of the whole sub-continent. 
There would be a place for the Native States in this picture. 
They must necessarily be affected by the processes at work in 
British India. But in them progress towards democracy would 
not be artificially accelerated. The Report added that * the 
final form of India’s constitution must be evolved out of Indian 
conditions’’ and must be ‘‘ materially affected by the need of 
securing Imperial responsibilities.” The dominating factor in 
the intermediate process would be the rate at which the pro- 
vinces could move towards responsible government. 

The Viceroy and the Secretary of State asked for reasoned 
criticism of these proposals. In particular they were to be 
examined by the heads of provinces who had not seen them in 
their matured form. The examination ended in the con- 
demnation of dyarchy by the large majority of local Govern- 
ments. Five heads of provinces were in January 1919 invited 
to make alternative proposals. They recommended a unified 
form of provincial government with an official majority of a 
Governor and two Executive Councillors (one an Indian) and 
‘a minority of two popular ministers. The ministers would 
exercise a joint responsibility in all departments and no separate 
or sole responsibility. The heads of provinces reported: ‘* We 
are impressed by the misgivings that exist in the services 
generally, Indian as well as European, as to their position 


IN—138 


194 FROM 1914 


and prospects under a dual form of government. The scheme 
exposes a large surface to legislative, administrative and 
financial friction. It breaks away from all experience and 
divides government against itself. It has all the elements 
which make for division at a time when there is most need for 
co-operation.” They remarked that owing to religious, caste, 
social and other cleavages among the people, the electorate 
would be very different from the electorates of Western coun- 
tries. At present it was impossible to predict how it would act. 

Such were the views of the Lieutenant-Governors of the 
United Provinces, the Punjab and Burma, of the Chief Com- 
missioners of the Central Provinces and Assam. The Governor 
of Bengal and the Lieutenant-Governor of Bihar and Orissa, 
however, held that the scheme of dyarchy proposed in the 
Report was more in accordance with the pronouncement of 
August 20,1917; it offered less chance of discord than a scheme 
of unified government; and the latter would further imply 
a sudden transfer of all power from official to non-official 
Members of Councils, which would be very dangerous. 

The alternative scheme was asked for and formulated in 
January 1919, and was not given to the public till May 1919, 
when the Franchise and Functions Committees proposed in 
the Reforms Report had done their work, and dyarchy had 
been for many months in sole possession of the field. 

Although condemned by the Congress and Muslim League 
and severely criticised by the European Association, the 
Montagu-Chelmsford proposals, which were supported by all 
the members of the Council of the Secretary of State and of 
the Viceroy’s Executive Council, were welcomed by the non- 
official members of the Imperial Legislative Council. But the 
great majority of the people were thinking of other things. 
The monsoon of 1918 was failing. Prices of grain, salt, oil 
and cloth were rising and causing depression and anxiety. 
Nothing else mattered to the masses. The District officers 
too were apprehensive. In addition to their ordinarily heavy 
duties, they were busily occupied in assisting to obtain recruits 
for the army and for labour corps as well as in collecting 
supplies. Their attention was constantly riveted on the 
battlefields of France and Italy; and only gradually were 
they cheered by the consciousness that victory was near, and 
that the prolonged strain was drawing to an end. Great issues 
were at stake in Europe and Asia; but while the Empire was 
fighting for its life, certain agitators continued their efforts, 
breaking new ground in the promotion of labour-unrest in 


THE REFORMS PROPOSALS 195 


Southern India. In September 1918 Muhammadan riots 
occurred in Calcutta. In October and November the country 
was visited by a terribly severe influenza epidemic which caused 
12,500,000 deaths.? 

On November 1 the Moderates definitely severed themselves 
from the Congress by holding a separate Conference at Bom- 
bay, which was attended by 500 delegates. Admittance was 
regulated by invitation, as wreckers were feared. But many 
sympathisers abstained from coming forward from fear of the 
attacks and abuse of newspapers. 

The same month brought news of the Armistice. The 
long strain of the war came to an end. The Maharaja of 
Bikanir and Sir Satyendra (now Lord) Sinha were chosen to 
represent India at the Peace Conference. Before going further, 
we may well examine the parts played by various provinces 
and races in the great struggle. 


XXII 
INDIA’S WAR-EFFORT 


THE primary duties of the pre-war army in India had been 
first the maintenance of order within and on the borders of 
British India, and second the provision of a field army capable, 
should occasion arise, of undertaking a campaign beyond the 
frontier. The army in India had not been maintained for 
meeting general Imperial obligations, although it had been on 
occasions employed in foreign campaigns, which had extended 
from Egypt in the West to China in the East, and although 
British regiments from India had saved Natal in 1899. Never 
before 1914 had units exceeding 18,000 in strength been de- 
spatched overseas. 

At the outset of the Great War the proportion of British 
to Indian units was approximately one to two. The former 
were drafts from the British regular army, were brigaded with 
Indian units and were paid for by India. The latter were 
practically a long-service army, recruited on the principle 
laid down by Lord Roberts that, as only a small force was 
financially possible, it must be drawn from the martial castes 
and classes, the best fighting material available. There was 
no room for a soldier ‘* whose only raison d étre is that he acts 
as a check upon another soldier.’ The annual demand for 
recruits averaged about 14,000. In each regiment Indian 
officers holding commissions from the Viceroy occupied a posi- 

t oe by Census Commissioner read before the Society of Arts, February 

23. 


196 FROM 1914 


tion immediate between the British commissioned officers and 
the Indian N.C.O.s. 

In Chapter XX were shown the heavy demands which were 
made on the army in India in the first months of war. The 
total number of British officers sent overseas from India during 
the whole war-period was 23,070. British other ranks simi- 
larly despatched, either as complete units or as reinforcements, 
numbered 196,000. The total strength of Indian personnel, 
combatant and,’ non-combatant, despatched to the various 
forces overseas during the war was 943,372. The casualties 
suffered by Indian troops were 106,594, of whom 36,696, in- 
cluding 691 Indian officers, were killed or died; 841 British 
officers of the Indian Army and 212 of the Reserve were killed 
or died on service. 

The old system of recruitment remained in force till 1917, 
when it practically broke down. Then it was that, under the 
direction of a Central Recruiting Board, presided over by the 
late Sir William Meyer, wider recruitment of all kinds was 
undertaken, and new methods were adopted from the Punjab 
which sufficiently co-ordinated civil and military recruiting 
agencies. 

In the combatant ranks Punjabi Muslims, Sikhs, Gurkhas 
and Rajputs were numerous and prominent. Recruitment 
from races without military traditions met with but limited 
success.! 

The provincial figures for recruitment of all kinds were : 


Population | Combatant igre 
Province. in Millions. Recruits combatan’ Total. 
(ensue of | Enlisted. | Haina, 
Madras . : ; y 7 40 51,223 41,117 92,340 
Bombay P ; ; ¢ 20 41,272 30,211 71,483 
Bengal . ; é : ‘ 45 Teed 51,935 59,052 
United Provinces . : : 47 163,578 117,565 281,143 
Punjab . : ; ; 20 349,688 97,288 446,976 
N.W. Frontier Province : . 3 32,181 13,050 45,231 
Baluchistan . : : ; 1,761 327 2,088 
Burma. 7 : , 12 14,094 4,579 18,673 
Bihar and Orissa ; : : 33 8,576 32,976 41,552 
Central Provinces . 3 E 13 5,376 9,631 15,007 
Assam . p , : 6 942 14,182 15,124 
Ajmer- -Merwara : : : $ 7,391 1,632 8,973 
Total ; 3 : 683,149 414,493 | 1,097,692 


a ern RP 


1 See Esher Report. 


INDIA’S WAR-EFFORT 197 


As the above figures show, the military strength of British 
India lies mainly in the Punjab and United Provinces, the 
old battleground of India, the country of the Rajputs, the 
Sikhs, the Gurkhas, and the Muslims from Central Asia who 
followed the Moghal Emperors. 

The Punjab in particular had been the favourite recruiting- 
field for soldiers since the days of the Mutiny. Half of the 
Indian Army had been raised in that province. Its rural 
classes, its landlords, its peasant-proprietors, have rendered 
services of incalculable value to the Empire; and no story of 
the Punjab’s great war-effort would be complete which did not 
notice the indefatigable and strenuous appeals of the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, Sir Michael O’Dwyer, as well as the services 
of those civil and police officers of Government, British and 
Indian, who in the first critical months of the war, when blood- 
shed and riot were menacing, met and defeated a conspiracy 
which, had it achieved a substantial measure of success, would 
have inevitably deflected the whole course of India’s war- 
history. Their anxieties had not ended with those months. 
Throughout the war some thousands of emigrants, who had 
returned to the Punjab with revolutionary ideas, were living 
in the villages of that province, some under restrictions, but 
the majority at perfect liberty. 

Turning to the United Provinces, we find remarkable figures 
from an area which for recruiting of combatants had long 
lain largely fallow; we also find a supply of non-combatant 
recruits well in excess of the supply from any other province 
of India. 

It must be remembered that for years these provinces, 
which were the cockpit of the Mutiny and are the heart of 
India, had been slighted as a recruiting-ground for the com- 
batant ranks. Military traditions had grown faint in many 
districts. On January 1, 1915, from 17,000 to 18,000 only 
of the fighting force of India came from the United Provinces. 
In pre-war days the annual supply was about 1,500 combatant 
recruits, who were taken from a very limited number of classes. 
It was in 1917 that, under the direction of the Central Re- 
cruiting Board, a great effort was made, and a provincial War 
Board, under Sir John Campbell, co-ordinated and controlled 
all war-efforts. The result was that, whereas the total number 
of combatant recruits during the first half of 1917 was only 
12,551, at the time of the Armistice the monthly average 
had risen to 12,806. Remarkable keenness and organising 
capacity were shown in recruitment by the caste brotherhoods 


198 FROM 1914 


of the Rajputs, the Jats and the Ahirs (or herdsmen). The 
hillmen of all classes responded splendidly to the call of the 
Government. The two regiments of which the Provinces have 
particular reason to be proud are the 39th Garhwalis and the 
6th Jats, both of which have earned imperishable renown. 

In supplying non-combatant recruits, the United Provinces 
stand first in India. For the Army Bearer Corps, in which 
there was at one time a most serious shortage, they supplied 
nearly half the total recruited in all India. Twenty-one inde- 
pendent labour companies came from there, as well as an 
agricultural corps, for growing maize at Salonika, which was 
urgently requisitioned in March 1918 and despatched within 
ten days from Lucknow. A special rock-cutting company was 
raised for Southern Persia, and another agricultural company 
was recruited from the hills for employment in Mesopotamia. 
Between July 1, 1917, and November 1, 1918, the Provinces 
supplied 76,762 non-combatants against a demand of 45,823. 
Strenuous exertions were made by the landlords and by the 
district officers. 

To very many the war was a vague idea, yet the spirit 
that moved some of the humblest is evidenced by a petition 
of a poor Jat widow in the Aligarh district received by a 
recruiting officer. In this petition the widow said that her 
husband had died seventeen and a half years before, leaving 
one son six months old. When the boy reached the age of 
sixteen she took him to the recruiting officer, but he was 
rejected as being too young. Now he had waited two years 
longer and she could offer him to the British Government to 
fight for the just cause. ‘* At his departure,’ ran the petition, 
‘‘my instructions to my son are that he will be a source of 
pleasure and profit to me only when he does his best to defeat 
the cause of the enemy by the sacrifice of his life in the service 
of the Government. Go, my son, serve the King, and pray for 
his long life and prosperity, and do your duty.” The boy was 
enrolled in the 35th Sikhs, and the mother’s petition should be 
remembered as long as loyalty and self-sacrifice are honoured 
among men. 

The next province that calls for particular notice is the 
small but most difficult and important charge of the North- 
west Frontier Province. Ninety-four per cent. of its popula- 
tion are Muslims of the most fanatical and turbulent type, to 
whom the participation of Turkey in the war, the military 
operations of the British in Mesopotamia, Palestine and Arabia, 
lands held sacred throughout Islam, were religious appeals of 


INDIA’S WAR-EFFORT 199 


a potent kind. It was believed, even by many who had still 
then been definitely pro-British, that the Entente Allies had 
conspired together to compass the final overthrow of Islam. 
- This belief was fanned by Afghan, Turk and German emissaries, 
who strongly endeavoured to arrange a concerted rising of the 
fierce and warlike frontier tribes. Throughout the whole period 
of the war the latter gave trouble, but with no sustained co- 
hesion. The result was that each rising was dealt with as it 
occurred. Fortunately this most vulnerable portion of the 
Empire had been for some time in the hands of a notable 
soldier and administrator, the late Sir George Roos-Keppel, 
G.C.L.E.; and there can be no doubt that this fact contributed 
substantially to its escape from any general rebellion. 

But its war-record was by no means purely negative. 
Although again and again officers, British and Indian, were 
borrowed for Mesopotamia and elsewhere; although many of 
those who remained broke down; although trans-frontier 
recruiting came to a standstill; recruiting in the five districts 
on the British side of the frontier in percentage excelled even 
the Punjab figure. Contributions, moreover, to the War 
Loan and war charities were generous for so poor a population. 
Throughout the war the police of the province rendered excel- 
lent service in spite of poor pay; and the whole provincial 
staff of civil and military officers held the gates of India through 
those critical years with untiring firmness, courage and resource. 

Regarding other provincial figures, it is fair to note that the 
climates, circumstances, peoples, of the various provinces differ 
ereatly. Indian races with martial traditions are limited in 
number, belong entirely to the agricultural classes and largely 
to particular provinces. I'or this reason provinces should not 
be judged simply by the statistics given. Until late in the 
war, recruitment for the combatant ranks was carried on 
among those races only which possess military traditions. 

There can be no doubt that better results than those actually 
obtained would have followed from wider and more elaborate 
recruiting efforts earlier in the war. But the domestic situa- 
tion at first presented certain features of grave peril which 
must be borne in mind when we review the past. We should 
also remember that originally in the United Kingdom the 
watchword ‘‘ Business as usual’’ had been given out by high 
authority, and that the magnitude of the task before the 
Empire was imperfectly appreciated at its centre. England 
did not then know what India could provide, and India did 
not know all that England would need. The great effort 


200 FROM 1914 


which was set on foot by Lord Chelmsford and Sir Charles 
Monro, then Commander-in-Chief, and organised with remark- 
able success by the Central Recruiting Board under the guid- 
ance of Sir William Meyer and Sir Havelock Hudson, Adjutant- 
General, came when England had at last realised how near 
she was to losing the war. 

Before leaving the subject of provincial recruitment, a well- 
deserved tribute must be paid to the fine services of some 
Bombay regiments, and more especially to the Konkanasth 
Marathas, who have learnt from British military officers to 
fight under modern conditions with a spirit worthy of the 
ancient renown of Sivaji’s soldiers. 

Passing to the independent kingdom of Nipal the ancient 
and tried ally of the British Government, and to the Native 
States of India, we should note that from the former 58,904 
recruits were obtained, and that 115,891 recruits (88,958 com- 
batant and 26,933 non-combatant) were furnished by the 
latter, the Rajput States alone contributing 59,267. The 
services of the Ruling Chiefs were of inestimable value. 

Thousands of medical, railway and technical personnel were 
sent overseas. Numbers were raised for labour corps, porter 
corps, groom companies, supply and transport. The total of 
all ranks of personnel embarked at Bombay and Karachi was 
1,802,394. Of these 296,221 were British and 1,006,173 were 
Indian. 

Horses, ponies, mules, camels, draught bullocks, dairy 
cattle, sent overseas aggregated 172,815. The burden thrown 
upon the Royal Indian Marine was enormous. Sea-transport 
for men, animals, stores and muritions was taken up and 
fitted out under the supervision of Captain Lumsden and his 
officers with remarkable expedition. Hospital ships, too, were 
equipped and despatched to various theatres of war. Boats 
for river transport in Mesopotamia were fitted out in Bombay 
and Calcutta. 

India is not an industrial country. Labour of the kind 
required in the production of war material hardly existed out- 
side the ordnance factories, two or three other Government 
establishments and a few private engineering firms. The 
munition-making resources of the country were first co-ordin- 
ated by the Railway Board, which employed a special staff 
to supervise and develop output. But when, on March 1, 
1917, shortly after Sir Charles Monro’s succession to the office 
of Commander-in-Chief, the Munitions Board was created as 
a temporary Department of the Government of India and the 


INDIA’S WAR-EFFORT 201 


services of Sir Thomas Holland were enlisted, marvels were 
effected in the output of war-material. The Munitions Board 
took over the organisation of: (a) the ordnance factories ; 
(b) hides (tanned and raw), and leather exports to the United 
Kingdom and Italy; (c) the supply of railway track, rolling 
stock and plant; (d) the supply of textiles and clothing, of 
boots, tents and jute goods; (e) the supply of water-transport 
in eastern theatres of war; (f) the shipping of timber to 
Kgypt, Mesopotamia, Salonika and other theatres of war; 
(g) the supply of miscellaneous engineering plant and stores. 

A few figures will afford some idea of the extent of these 
activities. Payments on account of hides alone amounted to 
£6,811,477 up to March 31, 1918, and between April 1, 1918, 
and October 31, 1918, amounted to £3,447,254. The total value 
of equipment and supplies sent overseas during the war to 
the various forces dependent on India was £34,408,000. For 
Mesopotamia 156 steamers, 271 launches and 531 barges were 
provided or arranged from India. In addition a small number 
of craft were despatched to Aden and East Africa. 

The cotton-mills of Bombay, the jute-mills of Calcutta, the 
woollen-mills of Cawnpore, the great Tata Iron and Steel 
Works Company—the emblem of a remarkable advance of 
industry in India—all contributed materially toward winning 
the war. ‘“‘I can hardly imagine,’’ said Lord Chelmsford, 
‘** what we should have done if the Tata Company had not been 
able to give us steel rails which have provided not only for 
Mesopotamia, but for Egypt, Palestine and East Africa.” 

The total net contribution from India’s revenues towards 
the close of the war amounted to £135,800,000 by the close 
of the year 1918-19; a further sum of £13,800,000 was paid 
in 1919-20; and sums aggregating about £10,500,000 will be 
paid in succeeding years in respect of pensionary charges. 

The great effort of 1917-18 was loyally seconded by propa- 
gandist and patriotic articles in some organs of the press; 
but as the struggle reached its supreme climax, it became 
more and more apparent that Government must endeavour 
to disseminate more accurate news among the people. In the 
Punjab an official weekly war-journal was published from May 
1918 up to the close of the year, in English, Urdu and Gur- 
mukhi (for Sikhs), under the editorship of Mr. Kitchin, Com- 
missioner of Lahore, which did excellent service. During the 
last three months of the war the sales of the Urdu edition, of 
which there was no free issue, were never less than 70,000 per 
week. At one time they totalled 100,000. On July 17, 1918, 


202 FROM 1914 


an official war journal was issued in the United Provinces 
under the editorship of the Rev. Dr. Garfield Williams, who 
was assisted by Pandit Satyanand Joshi, sub-editor of the 
Leader. At first the issues were 41,000, but by December they 
had risen to 119,500, and had penetrated to remote villages of 
the provinces. 

In England the Civil Service was largely augmented during 
the war-period. But recruits from home were rarely available 
to fill vacancies among civil servants in India, caused by illness 
or deputations to military duty. The last eighteen months of 
war-time were marked by much political agitation and debate. 
The fact that, in spite of these circumstances, the highest 
authorities in India were able to devote prolonged energy to 
discussing post-war constitutional changes at a time when the 
West was wrapped in darkness and gloom points unmistakably 
to the general tranquillity of the country and the never-ceasing 
toil of the rank and file of the civil administration. 

It must, however, be clearly understood that among all 
the men of our own race who contributed to India’s effort in 
the Great War, the British officer of the Indian Army stands 
first and foremost. His helmet has reflected few gleams of 
glory; but it was he who in the long years before 1914 disci- 
plined the ardour and inspired the confidence which moved the 
officers and men who followed him through many a hard-fought 
engagement. The officers and soldiers of the old Indian Army 
have largely vanished from the earth; but the memory of 
their self-sacrifice challenges Britain to guard the trust for 
which they gave their all. 


XXIV 
TRAGEDY 


THE great struggle was over. But trouble of a new kind was 
gradually assuming outline. 

Shortly after the publication of the Reforms proposals, 
another report had been published in India, and later in Eng- 
land. It was the work of a committee appointed by the 
Government of India, in consequence of a representation 
made by the Government of Bengal, to investigate the nature 
and extent of criminal conspiracies connected with the revo- 
lutionary movement and to suggest legislation whereby diffi- 
culties encountered in dealing with such conspiracies might 
be counteracted. The President of the Committee, which 


TRAGEDY 203 


consisted of five members, two being Indian lawyers, was Mr. 
Justice Rowlatt of the King’s Bench. Their report was pub- 
lished on July 19, 1918. Its conclusions were these : 

Plots, which had produced a long series of murders and 
robberies, had been contrived in various provinces, notably 
Bengal. The objective of all these plots was the overthrow 
by foree of British rule in India. Sometimes they had been 
isolated, sometimes they had been inter-connected; in a few 
cases they had been encouraged and supported by German 
influence. The conspirators had been, as a rule, young men 
belonging to the educated middle or political classes. They 
were few in number, but their propaganda, inspired by per- 
verted idealism, was elaborate, ingenious and widely extended. 
In Bengal it had produced a long series of crimes; in four 
other provinces it took no root but led to sporadic crime or 
disorder. In the Punjab the return, during the closing months 
of 1914, of emigrants from America bent on anarchy and 
bloodshed had produced numerous outrages and a very dan- 
gerous conspiracy. In Bengal, particularly, the revolutionists 
had been very busy in schools and colleges; and by bomb- 
outrages, by secret murders, by assassinations of Indian police 
officers, by gang-robberies termed ‘“‘ political dacoities,’”’ they 
had established a terrorism which frequently rendered sworn 
evidence unobtainable and trials in Court abortive. The 
witnesses of the various crimes were generally timid, ignorant, 
credulous persons, descendants of the victims of the dacoits 
of Warren Hastings’s days, living in wide tracts of country 
largely destitute of communications, 

An old regulation was on the Statute-book which enabled 
imprisonment without trial of persons dangerous to the State. 
But this regulation could never be used without exciting 
strong animadversion in the Imperial Parliament. Conse- 
quently it was employed seldom and with much hesitation. 
Things grew worse and worse; and it was only in 1915, under 
the additional pressure of the war, that at last efficacious 
measures were taken under the Defence of India Act which 
was to have effect for the duration of the war and for six 
months after its conclusion. Application of this Act and of 
the regulations framed thereunder allowed internments in 
certain cases without trial, and restriction of the movements 
of dangerous persons. It also provided for speedier trials, 
The Punjab was soon quieted; and the outrages in Bengal 
were definitely arrested, but only after the new measure had 
been thoroughly used. 


204 FROM 1914 


The Rowlatt Committee were bidden to recommend, if they 
could, legislation for measures which should, on the expiration 
of this Act, prevent relapse into the semi-paralysis of the 
past. They did unanimously propose legislation on lines 
similar in character to the only effective remedy till then 
devised, but considerably less severe and far more subject to 
non-official intervention. They pointed out that the difficulties 
which had formerly arisen in dealing with revolutionaries 
sprang from a reign of terrorism; that this terrorism had, so 
far as revolutionary crime was concerned, beaten the ordinary 
Statute Law and brought it into contempt. At last a remedy 
had been devised; but former conditions might or might not 
return when the Defence of India Act lapsed on the conclusion 
of the war. It was uncertain in what circumstances the war 
would conclude. As far, however, as the Committee could 
see, the revolutionary movement had not been so broken that 
the possibility of revival of the conspiracies could safely be 
disregarded. On that footing they made their report. They 
recommended a few amendments in the Statute Law and the 
investment of the Government with certain powers which 
would, if need be, enable it to deal with certain emergencies, 
The powers should be on the Statute-book in advance in order 
that their effect might be deterrent. To postpone legislation 
till the danger was imminent was to risk a recurrence of the 
disastrous hesitations of past years. The powers, however, 
must be purely emergency, and it was for the Government to 
decide whether they should be taken permanently or only for 
a period. 

The publication of the Report was followed by bitter 
vituperation in the Extremist press; and before the Govern- 
ment of India had pronounced on its recommendations, a 
resolution was moved at the September 1918 sessions of the 
Imperial Legislative Council by Mr. Khaparde, a prominent 
politician, recommending that consideration of the Report be 
‘‘held in abeyance.’’ Mr. Khaparde condemned the Report 
and its proposals, but on division was only supported by one 
other member. Several non-official Indians spoke, none 
rejecting the Committee’s findings of fact, one condemning its 
proposals, the rest reserving judgment on the latter, but agree- 
ing that they saw no reason to postpone action on the Report. 
The Government concluded, with substantial reason, that 
legislative action should be taken on the recommendations of 
the Rowlatt Committee without unnecessary delay and would 
be supported, to a material extent, by sober Indian opinion. 


TRAGEDY 205 


They began to draft two bills which were to cause much com- 
motion. But before these were published came the Armistice ; 
and the time for which the new measures were to be ready was 
brought nearer than seemed probable in September. 

In November 1918 the Franchise and Functions Committees 
which were to elaborate in detail the principles propounded 
in the Montagu-Chelmsford Report began work under the 
presidency of Lord Southborough. They toured throughout 
the country, their labours concluding in March 1919. 

Political excitement, however, which had subsided for a 
short space after the Armistice, broke out again at the usual 
December meetings of the Congress and the Muslim League. 
These took place at Delhi and were marked by fervid oratory. 
The principle of self-determination must be applied to India. 
Political prisoners and internees must be released. The Press 
Act must be repealed. The declaration of August 20, 1917, 
was cautious and cold. The Montagu-Chelmsford proposals 
fell far short of the Congress-League scheme. There must 
be fiscal freedom for India. Full responsible government in 
the provinces should be granted at once. The proposals of 
the Sedition Committee, if accepted, ‘‘ would interfere with the 
fundamental rights of the Indian people.” Resolutions were 
passed by the Muslim League affirming the desirability of 
maintaining the control of the Sultan of Turkey over the holy 
places of Arabia and Mesopotamia, as the true Khalifa. Refer- 
ence was made in the speech of the President to ‘‘ the hurling 
of the hordes of Christendom against the bulwarks which the 
heroes of Islam had raised for the protection of their faith. 
It was evident that both Congress and Muslim League had been 
definitely captured by Extremists. 

In January 1919 the Government of India promulgated two 
Bills which, they announced, would be considered at the 
February sessions of the Imperial Legislative Council. The 
Bills embodied with slight variations the proposals of the 
Rowlatt Committee. The first, and by far the less important, 
Bill provided for the suggested amendments in the ordinary 
Statute Law. The second Bill empowered the Government 
of India to bring into action, wpon emergency, in any part of 
the country, by previous notification, specified provisions for 
the trial of persons prosecuted for anarchical or revolutionary 
crime or conspiracy, also for the internment, or restriction 
from travelling, of persons held on substantial grounds to have 
been guilty of, or to be likely to promote, revolutionary crime. 
These provisions were to come into force should emergency arise, 


206 FROM 1914 


and after carefully considered proclamation by the Government 
of India. They were hedged about by elaborate precautions. 

Then it was that in an ill-omened hour the Moderates joined 
the uncompromising opposition of the Extremists. Large 
meetings were held in various cities; Hxtremist orators were 
prominent. The provisions of the Bills were exaggerated and 
travestied in an absurd manner before audiences mainly con- 
sisting of excitable people who neither read nor cared to hear 
the text of the Report or the Bills. On the other side no 
one spoke; although there was certainly one section of the 
people of Bengal which, had it dared to come forward, could 
have pleaded the cause of the Bills to some purpose, a humble 
body but not unimpressive to those who knew the history of 
the past and believed that it was the duty of the Govern- 
ment to protect adequately its loyal servants and innocent 
subjects. There were the parents of youths decoyed by revo- 
lutionary associations to crime and ruin; there were unfortu- 
nates plundered of their property; there were widows and 
children of policemen or schoolmasters murdered for doing 
their duty faithfully and to the end. Again and again the 
criminals from whom such people had suffered had escaped, 
simply because of the uselessness of a Statute Law devised for 
happier times. Their many victims, could these have spoken, 
would not have criticised the new measures unfavourably. 

The Imperial Legislative Council met at Delhi early in 
February 1919, and the necessity for the Bills was emphasised 
by the Viceroy. The Home Member, Sir William Vincent, 
decided to take the *‘ Emergency’’ and more important Bill 
first. After long debates, bitter opposition, and various con- 
cessions, it was passed in opposition to the votes of all the 
non-official Indian members. All through the debates, from 
February to the end, the Government was constantly menaced 
with warnings of widespread and serious agitation. But it 
seemed so evident that to surrender to such threats would be 
to abandon the future control of India to the most violent 
and unreasonable section of political opinion that compromise 
beyond a certain point was deemed impracticable. The atti- 
tude of the Government was throughout conciliatory, and the 
piloting of the Bill in Select Committee and Council by the 
Home Member was warmly eulogised afterwards by Mr. 
Montagu in the House of Commons. 

Meantime outside the Council opposition to the measure 
was organising in particular places. The headquarters of the 
organisation were in the Bombay Presidency, where Mr. Gandhi 


TRAGEDY 207 


had taken up the cause. He had returned from South Africa 
in 1917, and had already attracted attention by his attitude 
in certain affairs. His past, his asceticism, his high reputa- 
tion for sanctity, appealed strongly to Indian sentiment. He 
now instituted a movement of passive resistance which was 
to go far and achieve infinite mischief. It was at once con- 
demned by the ‘* Moderate ’’ leaders at Delhi. When acknow- 
ledging their manifesto in Council, the Home Member warned 
the country in impressive terms of the dangers inherent in 
the new movement. But already, on March 1, the signatories 
to Satyagraha (insistence on truth, alias passive resistance) 
had formed an association at Bombay and appointed an execu- 
tive committee. On the next day Mr. Gandhi had issued a 
manifesto inaugurating “‘ civil disobedience’? to the Rowlatt 
Bill if passed, and to any other laws which might be selected 
by his association. Before the close of the month speeches 
of a violent and inflammatory kind had been delivered both 
in the Bombay Presidency and in Northern India. The bitter 
hostility that was preached rapidly intensified the effect of a 
propaganda of years, and, infecting still further the students 
of some large cities, communicated itself in an unprecedented 
fashion to the lower orders of those places. The bullies and 
ruffians among the latter, who are always ready to seize op- 
portunities, were encouraged by rumours that the war had 
exhausted the British Army. Pro-Turkish Muhammadan 
sentiment, high prices, resentment of an enhanced income-tax, 
encouraged a spirit of revolt. Among the credulous in some 
cities a zealous propaganda inspired the firm belief that a law 
had been passed by the British which would allow to all persons 
prosecuted in Court neither lawyer, nor appeal, nor right to call 
witnesses ; that even casual meetings of three or four persons 
would be forbidden; and that in some mysterious way even 
the women and children would be made to suffer. The tide 
of calumny and alarm was fast rising when from Bombay 
Mr. Gandhi and his committee proclaimed a general hartal 
(closing of shops and suspension of business) for March 30. 
Subsequently the day was altered to April 6; but on the former 
day occurred the first of a series of racial riots, deeply disas- 
trous in their nature and results. 

The practice of exercising communal pressure on a governor 
by means of organised hartal was existent in Moghal times, 
but was resorted to seldom. Under British rule it had almost 
disappeared, although its revival on a large scale was certainly 
contemplated by some of the revolutionists of 1907, and in 


208 FROM 1914 


1908 a learned Hindu, who lived apart from politics, expressed 
his conviction that future wars would be decided ‘* not so 
much by soldiers as by passive resistance—boycotts and 
strikes, industrial and economic methods.’’! Mr. Gandhi re- 
solved to apply these methods at once to a situation which had 
been diligently worked up for their reception. 

The Imperial Legislative Council had dissolved and the 
heads of the Government of India had left the capital when, — 
on the morning of March 80, the shops of Delhi were closed 
as a protest against the passage of the Sedition Bill. Some 
shopkeepers who opened were induced to close again; and 
about 1.80 p.m. members of a crowd entered the railway- 
station and endeavoured to prevent the contractor who was 
supplying food to third-class passengers from carrying out his 
duties. He was bidden to recognise the hartal, and on refusing 
was assaulted. Two of his assailants were arrested; the mob 
entered the station to rescue them, but were driven back by 
the police and some troops. Eventually the latter were com- 
pelled to fire; eight persons were killed, and a larger number 
were wounded. 

On March 31 large processions attended the funeral services 
of those who had been killed, but no collision between the 
crowds and the police occurred. On April 1 shops began to 
open again; but on April 6 there was a second hartal. A 
large meeting was held in a mosque, where, contrary to Muham- 
madan custom, Hindus were allowed to speak. On April 7, 8 
and 9, shops gradually reopened. On the evening of the last 
of these dates Mr. Gandhi, who was on his way from Bombay 
to Delhi, was stopped by order of Government and turned 
back to his own province of Bombay, where he was directed 
to stay. On April 14 and 17 further minor disturbances 
occurred at Delhi. 

The tale of the racial riots which marked this disastrous 
April, of arson, plunder and murder, of the preventive and 
retributory measures which these crimes produced, has been 
told in the Report of the Committee of enquiry presided over 
by Lord Hunter, senator of the Scotch College of Justice, and 
in the volumes of evidence published therewith. The broad 
facts must be briefly stated. The most violent outbreaks 
occurred in Guzerat, Mr, Gandhi’s native province, where an 
Indian magistrate was deliberately burnt to death for trying 
to do his duty, and in the Punjab, where great efforts were 
made to persuade the people that they were the victims of 


1 Gobinda Das, Hinduism and India, p. 253. 


TRAGEDY 209 


gross oppression. The storm-centre in this province was 
Amritsar, a city of peculiar geographical, commercial and 
political importance. There on April 10 the deportation of two 
prominent agitators was followed by savage riots, by attempts 
to sever communications, by fire and plunder, by brutal murders 
of four Europeans and attacks on others of both sexes, and by 
the hurried removal of British women and children to the 
fort. Further murders of two British warrant officers on the 
11th at Kasur, a neighbouring town, the cutting of all telegraph 
wires between Amritsar and Lahore on the 12th, the hostile 
attitude of the Amritsar population, and alarming news from 
the surrounding country led to a terrible act of retribution. 
On the afternoon of the 13th a dense gathering of thousands 
of men convened in defiance of proclamations in a wide enclosure 
named the Jallianwala Bagh, and listening to a harangue, was 
dispersed by the rifle-fire of a small Indian infantry force, 
delivered without immediate warning, under the orders of 
Brigadier-General R, E. Dyer. About 879 persons were killed 
and a far larger number were wounded, as fire was directed 
for about ten minutes on masses of persons endeavouring to 
escape through ‘few and imperfect exits’ from the scene of 
slaughter. General Dyer did not attempt to see that steps 
were taken to succour the wounded, for whom, as he expressed 
it, the hospitals were open. When all was over he marched 
his men back to their quarters. It appears that all through 
those terrible minutes his mind was filled to overflowing with 
three considerations, the futility of all previous measures, the 
continuous attempts to isolate his force, the certainty that if 
it were swept away massacre and destruction would reign 
unchecked far and wide. He believed that the safety of the 
province was at stake; and in the glare and excitement of 
the hour seems hardly to have appreciated the fact that for 
the crowds in front of him the Jallianwala Bagh was largely 
a cul-de-sac. We must deeply regret that the thoughts which 
possessed him left no room for cooler observation or for the 
natural compassion which must otherwise have interposed. 
But there can be no doubt that he was confronted by a terrible 
and highly critical emergency and by a wide impression that 
the arm of the Government was paralysed.1 On April 15 
martial law was declared at Lahore and Amritsar. It was soon 

1 The District Magistrate informed the Hunter Committee that the effect 
of General Dyer’s action ‘‘ was electric. The news ended all danger of further 
disturbance in the district. It was taken far and wide as an assurance that 


the hand of Government was not, as it was thought, paralysed; and all who 
were waiting on events hastened to declare for constituted authority.” 


IN—14 


210 FROM 1914 


afterwards extended to other districts and was marked by 
some incidents which later on met with severe censure from 
His Majesty’s Government as humiliating to Indian sentiment. 
Martial law was clearly unavoidable. From April 10 to 22, 
railways and telegraph wires were subjected to repeated and 
organised attacks. No less than fifty-four outrages were re- 
ported by the Director of Telegraphs concerned. The railway 
staff was tampered with by agitators, with the result that in 
the centre of the province, the railway, as a commercial 
system, was practically paralysed between April 10 and 21. 
Derailment was resorted to, and for a time passenger traffic 
was seriously impeded. 

Outside the Punjab and the Guzerat area of the Bombay 
Presidency the Rowlatt Bill agitation evaporated in meetings 
of protest. In Calcutta there were riots which resulted in 
loss of life and injury to police officials; but there all was 
speedily over, and no disturbance occurred elsewhere in Bengal, 
the main source of the revolutionary movement, and the 
origin of the anti-sedition legislation. Three hundred of the 
landlords of that province addressed a remarkable circular 
letter to their tenants, pointing out that the Rowlatt Act had 
been passed ‘‘ more for the benefit of the people than for the 
benefit of the Government,” and reprobating ‘‘ the disorderly 
and lawless state of certain parts of India, due to a deliberate 
campaign of falsehood and downright misrepresentation which 
has been and continues to be systematically carried on by 
the enemies of Government concerning the scope, character 
and object of the Rowlatt Act, combined with the sinister 
activities, as is suspected, of a secret gang of agitators aiming 
at revolution and working beneath the surface.” 

Mr. Gandhi was at first shocked by the fruits of his activities. 
He assisted in restoring order at Ahmedabad and regretted 
that when he embarked upon a mass movement he “ had 
underrated the forces of evil.’? He was, he said, convinced 
that Satyagraha had nothing to do with the violence of the 
mob. Nevertheless he advised his followers to suspend civil 
disobedience for a time, and to assist in the restoration of 
order. In his opinion ‘‘ there were clever men behind the 
lawless deeds, and they showed concerted action.” But his 
repentance was short-lived. A month later he contemplated 
resumption of civil disobedience in July. 

It should be noted that during the period of the riots, when 
in the Punjab the whole authority and existence of the Govern- 
ment were violently challenged, its active adherents were 


TRAGEDY 211 


the Chiefs, the Indian Army and the Police. A prominent 
Punjabi landlord in a courageous letter to the press exposed 
the nature of the passive resistance movements and the 
methods employed to promote it.1 There were also many 
Indians ‘‘ who in the face of frenzied mobs, and even at the 
risk of their lives, afforded assistance or showed compassion 
to the innocent victims of the outrages.” ® 

With all the wisdom born of after-events it is natural to 
condemn the Rowlatt legislation. Yet there can be no doubt 
that, in the words of the Home Member, the central Government 
acted *‘ from a deep-rooted conviction that they were right.” 
When they undertook the legislation they believed that they 
might count on substantial Moderate support. Disaster re- 
sulted when this failed them altogether, and when, under a 
leader possessed of unique powers of appeal, racial propaganda 
of the bitterest and most unscrupulous description was addressed 
to urban populations weary of difficult times, suffering from 
high prices and the effects of a devastating epidemic, who 
had long been invited to ascribe all evils to British rule and 
were now persuaded that it might be overthrown. 


XXV 
THE END OF THE OLD ORDER 


Hazis-Uuua, the strong and capable Amir of Afghanistan, 
the loyal ally of the British Government, had been murdered 
on February 20, 1919, and after a brief turbid interregnum 
had been succeeded by his son Aman-Ulla, the present Amir. 
Russia was by this time dominated by militant anarchy; and 
the leprosy of Bolshevism was spreading in Central Asia. 
When “‘ passive resistance’’ in India had culminated in violent 
riots, Afghan agents in British territory represented to their 
master that should his troops cross the frontier, a general 
rebellion would follow. On April 25 the Afghan army was 
moving; a stream of anti-British propaganda was flowing 
from Kabul, and endeavours were being made to raise the 
frontier tribes. In May the Afghans attacked, and an Afghan 
agent who was endeavouring to start insurrection in Peshawar 
was deported. The Amir had issued a proclamation demand- 
ing the repeal of tyrannical laws which, he asserted, had been 
imposed on India. 

As soon as hostilities began, it was found that the covering 


1 Lovett, Indian Nationalist Movement, p. 211. 
2 Resolution (Government of India), May 3, 1920. 


pa oe FROM 1914 


force of militia and irregular troops, recruited from the frontier 
tribes, had become so seriously affected by fanatical Muslim 
propaganda as to be quite unreliable. Many of the men 
deserted to the enemy with their arms. It was necessary, 
with insufficient preparation, to hurry up troops from an 
army which had suffered the intense and prolonged strain of 
the Great War and of very heavy losses of officers. The way 
to the battlefield lay through the Central Punjab, so lately 
seething with revolt. But the situation was boldly faced. 
The area of domestic danger had been placed under martial 
law; and as soon as serious fighting commenced, considerable 
assistance was derived from aeroplanes, wireless telegraphy 
and high explosives. Enemy concentrations, and military 
objectives in important places such as Jelalabad and Kabul, 
were bombed; strong forces were mobilised on the frontier. 
In the north the Afghans were speedily defeated. Farther 
south operations lasted longer; but by June 2, before the 
frontier tribes had responded in any considerable measure to 
the temptations of the hour, the Afghans were beaten. 

Hostilities ceased; and a treaty of peace, negotiated by 
Sir Hamilton Grant, Foreign Secretary, on the part of the 
Government of India, was signed at Rawalpindi on August 8, 
1919. The British Government withdrew the privilege enjoyed 
by former Amirs of importing arms, ammunition or warlike 
munitions through India to Afghanistan. They confiscated the 
arrears of the late Amir’s subsidy and granted no subsidy to 
his successor. ‘They declared that, nevertheless, they desired 
the re-establishment of the old friendly relations under proper 
guarantees, and would, after six months, receive another 
Afghan mission with a view to negotiations for such re-estab- 
lishment. 

The Afghan Government accepted the former Indo-Afghan 
frontier, agreeing to demarcation of a certain undemarcated 
portion and to the acceptance of such boundary as a British 
Commission might lay down. At the same time they received 
a letter which officially recognised the freedom of Afghan 
foreign relations from British control and was, therefore, 
claimed by the Amir as a valuable concession. The British 
Government, however, explained that the changes brought 
about in the Middle East by the war had made it difficult to 
advise Afghanistan regarding foreign affairs. 

Order had been gradually restored in the Punjab. But the 
war necessitated extra precautions, especially in the railway- 
areas through which troops and munitions were constantly 


END OF THE OLD ORDER 213 


passing. Incidents of martial law, and punishments inflicted 
by the officers who administered it, were intensely resented 
by the political classes; but when, in May 1919, Sir Michael 
O’ Dwyer was succeeded by Sir Edward Maclagan, newspapers 
were timid and the Punjab was quiet. Martial law was relaxed 
in certain areas on May 20 and was entirely abrogated, except 
in regard to railway land, on June 11. A conciliatory policy 
was initiated by reducing sentences passed on convicted rioters.! 

It would have accorded with precedent if the Government 
of Lord Chelmsford, on the repression of the April riots, had 
called on the local governments concerned to submit full and 
detailed reports for the information of the Secretary of State 
and of Parliament, supplementing those reports with their 
own views and orders adopted after any further investigation 
that seemed desirable. By such means the whole truth re- 
garding the events of that melancholy April could have been 
ascertained and published at a time when the sense of a common 
danger was still impressive in India, when the atmosphere in 
which those events had occurred could have been understood, 
before long waiting and bitter recriminations had deepened 
the colourings which quickly overspread men’s minds in racial 
connections. If moreover there is one country where delay in 
enquiry complicates situations and increases difficulties, where 
slander and rumour grow apace, that country is India. But 
on this occasion the Central Government did not concern them- 
selves to sift the facts, at first because they were encumbered 
by the toil and anxiety imposed by the Afghan War and the 
possibility of a renewal of the riots, and afterwards because, 
in consultation with the Secretary of State, they decided to 
commit this task to a bi-racial committee which would begin 
sitting in the following October, six months after the con- 
clusion of the riots. 

The field of enquiry, so ne neglected on one side, was busily 
worked by the other. In July a committee of the Congress 
started work in the Punjab, traversed the whole area of the 
recent disorders and held an investigation of its own. The 
newspapers —especially in other provinces —expatiated violently 
on Punjab grievances ; and in September agitation culminated 
in a warm debate in the Imperial Legislative Council on a 


1 Numbers of the rioters had been arrested and tried; but the records 
of the Punjab trials by special tribunals were not examined by the Hunter 
Committee, for while this body was sitting the competence of the tribunals 
was under appeal before the Privy Council. The convicts, who numbered 1,781, 
were mostly townsmen. 


214 FROM 1914 


Bill which was introduced to indemnify from legal, but not 
from departmental, penalties action taken in good faith by 
the officers who had suppressed the riots. The Bill was strenu- 
ously opposed by a prominent Hindu politician, but became 
law. 

During the closing months of 1919 Muslim agitation, encour- 
aged by failure on the part of the Allies to arrange peace-terms 
with Turkey, was strengthened under the patronage of Mr. 
Gandhi, who was busy, with others, in preparing a Congress 
report on the riots and the repressive measures adopted by 
the Punjab Government. The Hunter Committee began to 
sit at Delhi on October 29. They heard the evidence of wit- 
nesses for 8 days at Delhi, for 29 days at Lahore, for 6 days 
at Ahmedabad, for 8 days at Bombay. All the witnesses, 
with exception of three high officials and one non-official, 
testified in public. The sittings were naturally accompanied 
by increasing racial tension which reached a climax with the 
examination of General Dyer. Simultaneously in England the 
Reforms proposals were before the Imperial Parliament. 

In the summer of 1919 the Government of India Bill, pre- 
pared by the Secretary of State in accordance with the pro- 
posals contained in the Montagu-Chelmsford Report, had been 
carefully considered by a Joint Committee of Lords and 
Commons sitting in London under the chairmanship of Lord 
Selborne. This Committee had studied carefully all the 
voluminous literature which had accumulated in connection 
with the Reforms, as well as the reports of the Franchise and 
Functions Committees appointed in pursuance of the Mon- 
tagu-Chelmsford proposals. They had examined representa- 
tives of deputations from Indian political bodies, some 
English-speaking Indians, and some British officials and non- 
officials. They had accepted dyarchy for the provinces, 
considering that this system would best secure the objects of 
the Declaration of 1917. It would fix responsibility, but 
would enable each side of a provincial Government to assist 
the other. Joint Cabinet discussion should take place as often 
as possible. The Committee made various recommendations 
designed to amplify and simplify the proposed Reforms. The 
most important of these were: 

(a) In the Government of India there should be no dyarchy, 
but three members of the Viceroy’s Executive Council should 
be public servants or ex-public servants, and not less than 
three should be Indians. No restriction should in future be 
placed on the total number of members of this Council. 


END OF THE OLD ORDER 215 


This was a far-reaching change. It resulted in the very 
early appointment of three Indian lawyers to an Executive 
Council of eight, of whom two were the Viceroy and the Com- 
mander-in-Chief. 

(b) The Council of State should be a true second chamber. 
Both this Council and the Legislative Assembly would have 
special direct electorates. For four years each body would 
have an appointed Chairman; and after that period would 
elect its own Chairman. 

(c) The annual Indian budget should be submitted to the 
vote of the Legislative Assembly; but certain charges of a 
special or recurring nature, e.g. the cost of defences, the debt 
charges and certain fixed salaries, would be exempted from the 
process of being voted. They could not be discussed by either 
Chamber unless the Governor-General permitted such discus- 
sion. 

The budget allotments as voted by the Legislative Assembly 
would be submitted to the Governor-General-in-Council, who, 
if he thought fit, could act as if any demand originally made 
in the budget statement had been assented to, notwithstanding 
the withholding of such assent or the reduction of the amount 
demanded. The Governor-General, too, could direct that 
Bills rejected by the Legislature should become law, if certified 
as essential for the “‘ safety, tranquillity or interests of British 
India.” But any Bill so enacted must be laid before the 
Imperial Parliament before it could receive His Majesty’s 
assent. 

(d) As regards the franchise generally, arrangements were 
made for certain constituencies based on racial distinctions, 
such as Muhammadan, Sikh, Maratha, European. There would 
also be constituencies designed to represent special interests 
such as landholders, Universities, planters or commerce. 

(ce) A High Commissioner should be appointed for India 
who would perform functions of agency in London analogous 
to those performed by the High Commissioners of the 
Dominions. 

(f) The Parliamentary Committee eulogised the public ser- 
vices of the Crown in India, declaring that they had ‘ deserved 
the admiration and gratitude of the whole Empire.’ Precau- 
tions should be taken to secure to members thereof “* the career 
in life to which they had looked forward when they were re- 
cruited.”” If any officers felt that they could not usefully take 
part in the new régime, they should be offered an equivalent 
career elsewhere, if this offer could be made, and if not, should 


216 FROM 1914 


be allowed to retire on such pension as the Secretary of State 
in Council might consider suitable to their length of service. 

(¢) The Committee considered that no further constitutional 
changes should be made for ten years, and then only on the 
advice of a Commission appointed by Parliament in accordance 
with the Montagu-Chelmsford proposals. In the interval no 
changes of substance should be made either in the franchise 
or in the lists of reserved and transferred subjects. 

(h) The Committee considered that liberty should be granted 
to the Government of India to devise those tariff arrangements 
which seemed best fitted to India’s needs as an integral portion 
of the British Empire. It could not be granted by statute 
without limiting the ultimate power of Parliament to control 
the administration of India, and without limiting the Crown’s 
power of veto. But India should have the same liberty to 
consider the interest of her consumers and manufacturers as 
Great Britain, Australia, Canada and South Africa. When 
therefore the Government of India and her Legislature were in 
agreement in this connection, the Secretary of State should, 
as far as possible, avoid interference. Interference should be 
limited to safeguarding the international obligations of the 
Empire or fixed arrangements within the Empire to which His 
Majesty’s Government was a party. 

The Bill, modified in accordance with all the above recom- 
mendations, passed through both Houses of Parliament in 
December 1919. It had owed much to Mr. Montagu’s advocacy. 
He gladly acknowledged ‘‘the most. responsible and at the 
same time the proudest moment” of his life. He thought 
that the passage of the Bill entailed the end of the old era. 
The “* sores of the past’? must be forgotten, and a fresh start 
must be made. 

In the Lords the Bill was introduced by Lord Sinha, an 
ex-President of the Indian National Congress, who had some 
time before been appointed Under-Secretary of State. ‘‘ This 
Bill,” he said, ‘‘ will not, and is not intended to, set up a final 
and permanent constitution for India. It provides for a 
period of transition. How long that period will last I make 
no effort to forecast, but while it lasts, we have to provide a 
bridge whereby India may pass from an autocratic and bureau- 
cratic form of government, which guides her destinies ab ewira, 
to a form of government whereby she will control her own 
destinies. We have to give the people of India at once some 
measure of control over the policy which dictates their laws 
and imposes their taxes; and this we have to do by a system 


END OF THE OLD ORDER 217 


which will enable a sure judgment to be passed on the use or 
misuse to which that control is put, and an orderly and justi- 
fiable advance to be made.” 

The Bill received the Royal assent on December 23, 1919, 
and on the same day His Majesty was pleased to issue a pro- 
clamation to India which pointed out the needs of persever- 
ance and mutual forbearance between all sections and races 
of His Majesty’s people on the difficult path to responsible 
Government which had now been definitely marked out. His 
Majesty expressed an earnest desire that so far as possible any 
trace of bitterness between his people and those who were 
responsible for his Government should be obliterated; and 
in fulfilment of this desire an amnesty was granted to political 
prisoners and to persons who had been convicted of offences 
against the State or subjected to restrictions of liberty under 
any special or emergency legislation. The proclamation an- 
nounced the establishment of a Chamber of Princes and the 
forthcoming visit to India of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. 
** With all my people,” the proclamation concluded, “‘I pray 
to Almighty God that by His wisdom and under His guidance, 
India may be led to greater prosperity and contentment, and 
may grow to the fullness of political freedom.” 

The result of the Act and of the rules subsequently passed 
thereunder was to give the vote to 6,274,015 of the adult male 
population. The previous electorates had totalled a few thou- 
sands. The rules were not completed and sanctioned by 
Parliament until the year 1920 had far advanced. 

His Majesty’s proclamation was well received in India 
generally; and very full effect was given to the policy laid 
down by the amnesty, hundreds of the April rioters being 
released from jail long before the expiration of their sentences. 
The Congress and Muslim League met at Amritsar on Decem- 
ber 27, and some notorious released prisoners were hailed with 
loud acclamations. Inflammatory speeches were delivered ; 
pilgrimages were made to the Jallianwala Bagh, and the whole 
sessions of both political bodies proceeded on lines indicating 
bitter hostility to the Government. The Moderates, however, 
held a conference in Calcutta to celebrate the passage of the 
Reforms ; and when the Imperial Legislative Council met at 
Delhi in January 1920, a resolution moved by a Moderate 
member, Mr. Sinha, was carried unanimously, expressing loyal 
devotion to His Majesty the King-Emperor, profound gratitude 
for the Royal proclamation, and confidence in the future of 
the reforms. The British representatives of the Calcutta and 


218 FROM 1914 


Bombay Chambers of Commerce pledged themselves to make 
the new measure a “ real success.”’ 

Meantime Mr. Gandhi had united with certain other Hindus 
and with some Muslims in a ‘‘ Khilafat Conference’’ which as 
the year went on raised considerable funds. In January a 
deputation from this body represented to the Viceroy the 
necessity for the preservation of the Turkish Empire, stating 
that the continued existence of the Sultan’s Khilafat “‘as a 
temporal, no less than a spiritual, institution was the very 
essence of their faith.” Lord Chelmsford’s reply was very 
sympathetic; but in March Mr. Gandhi proclaimed his hope 
that the Hindus would realise that the Khilafat question 
overshadowed ‘‘ the reforms and everything else.” His mani- 
festo concluded by recommending non-co-operation with Govern- 
ment. As a last resort the soldiers of the Indian Army would 
be advised to refuse to serve. 

The Khilafat Conference despatched a deputation to Eng- 
land, which. was received by the Prime Minister on March 17. 
But Mr. Lloyd George’s reply to their representations was 
denounced as unsatisfactory ; and when protracted negotia- 
tions between the Allies and Turkey ended in the publication 
of the peace-terms of May 1920, the Khilafat Conference refused 
to be consoled by the Government of India, declining to believe 
that the conditions announced had not been influenced by 
religious considerations. Their anger was voiced by Mr. 
Gandhi, supported by two Muslim brothers, Shaukat Ali and 
Muhammad Ali, who had been in 1915 interned by Lord Har- 
dinge’s Government at Chindwara in the Central Provinces, 
as an essential measure of precaution at a most critical time. 
In June 1919 they had been committed to jail for urging on 
Indian Muslims the desirability of assisting the Afghans in 
pending hostilities, but had been released in the following 
December, when they made haste to show that their spirit was 
unchanged. Muhammad Ali had taken a leading part in the 
Khilafat deputation which had gone to England and been 
received by the Prime Minister. Both brothers now, together 
with Mr. Gandhi, vigorously denounced the Turkish peace- 
terms. The political barometer was falling fast, when, on 
May 26, 1920, the Report of the Hunter Committee was pub- 
lished in India and England, together with the covering de- 
spatch of the Government of India and the orders of His 
Majesty’s Government conveyed by the Secretary of State for 
India.? 


2 See India in 1920, pp. 212-47. 


END OF THE OLD ORDER 219 


The acute effect of these publications on racial tension 
was enhanced by the circulation of the report of the Congress 
Committee of Enquiry, which contained many wild allegations 
against servants of the Government who had borne the heat 
and burden of a bitter and painful day. Reports of the 
vigorous debates which took place in the Imperial Parliament 
on the subject of Amritsar and the treatment of General Dyer? 
added fuel to the flame of a burning controversy. During 
the remaining months of the year Mr. Gandhi, his asso- 
ciates, and their agents stumped the country preaching ‘‘ non- 
violent non-co-operation.’” Agitators too visited Muhammadan 
cultivators in the North-west Frontier Province and in Sind, 
persuading many to sell their holdings and their goods, leave 
India, which was no longer a place for devout Muhammadans, 
and flee over the mountains into Afghanistan. About 18,000 
obeyed the preachers, omitting to notice that those worthies 
did not propose to accompany them to the land of promise ; 
and selling their lands and goods they wandered away with 
their families. Thousands returned, robbed, destitute, dis- 
illusioned ; but very many died far from home. Those who 
came back found themselves homeless, with their property in 
the hands of those to whom they had sold it for a trifle. The 
Government did all that was possible to mitigate their suffer- 
ings; and the Khilafat agitators turned their attention to 
fresh fields of activity. A British district officer of high char- 
acter was murdered by three of their disciples. 

The unprecedented licence afforded to Mr. Gandhi and his 
coadjutors as they stumped the country sowing broadcast the 
seeds of hatred and revolt excited amazement. In November 
the Government, who were embarrassed by circumstances 
including Amritsar, declared their policy, which in action 
amounted to a decision to take at face-value the plea that 
the Khilafat-cum-non-co-operation movement, with its elabor- 
ate inculcation of race-hatred, enjoined abstention from vio- 
lence. Repression was incompatible with the spirit of the 
times and with the dawn of a genuine parliamentary system. 
The remedial properties inherent in the reforms, organised 
exertions on the part of ‘‘ sober-minded and moderate men,” 
must be relied on to hold the pass and combat the dangers of 
the situation. Only in the last resort would the Government 
interpose, when indeed failure to take action ‘‘ would be a 
criminal betrayal of the people.” ” 


1 General Dyer had been retired from the Army. 
2 Government Resolution, November 1920. 


220 FROM 1914 


‘‘ Sober-minded and moderate men’’ here and there acted 
in a firm and courageous spirit. The assaults of the non- 
co-operative party on schools and colleges, its boycott of the 
Council elections, attained very limited success. But fertile 
in expedients, and armed with money, Mr. Gandhi and his 
associates endeavoured to mould to their purposes the illiterate 
and impressionable masses. At the December political meetings 
the Congress creed was altered in such a fashion as to elimi- 
nate professed adherence of that body to the British con- 
nection, and a _ resolution was passed instituting village 
committees which would preach racial hatred and boycott 
of the British far and wide. Paid agents were employed; 
subscriptions were collected for a ‘‘ swaraj’’ fund in memory 
of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who had died in the previous 
August. 

The Moderates, on the other hand, formed a ‘* National 
Liberal Federation ’’ and held a conference at Madras. 

The year had been marked by bad harvests, high prices 
and many strikes. Abroad Mustafa Kemal at Angora was 
rallying Muslim sentiment to resist the Treaty of Sévres. From 
Tashkent the Bolsheviks, who had occupied Bukhara, were 
conducting an energetic campaign of propaganda. Persia had 
declined to ratify the Anglo-Persian agreement; Afghanistan 
was wavering; but in October the Amir invited the despatch 
of a British mission to Kabul. 

The frontier was much disturbed. An expedition against 
the Mahsuds had lasted from December 1919 to May 7, 1920. 
The tribesmen were found to be well armed with modern 
rifles and were seasoned by soldiers who had learnt much 
from the Great War. A very stubborn action had been fought 
on January 14, when 9 British officers had been killed and 
6 wounded, whilst 10 Indian officers and 365 Indian other 
ranks had been killed or wounded. The expedition had even- 
tually been brought to a successful conclusion. But it had 
not stood alone. The Wana Waziris had carried out many 
raids in Indian territory, robbing and murdering peacetul 
villagers. A column was despatched against them, and a 
central position in Waziristan was occupied and maintained. 
The North-west Frontier Province was seriously affected by 
the ferment among the tribes and by the reaction of conditions 
in India. 

Non-co-operators spared no pains to procure a general boy- 
cott of the elections for the Reformed Councils, resorting 
freely to intimidation. In some places they attained con- 


END OF THE OLD ORDER 221 


siderable success, but on the whole they failed. The all-India 
proportions of voting were: 

(a) for the Provincial Councils, 20 to 30 per cent. ; 

(6) for the Legislative Assembly, roughly 20 per cent. ; 

(c) for the Council of State, 40 per cent.? 

On December 31 the old order passed away. Like all human 
institutions, it had its defects. But its merits were attested 
in that time of supreme need when India, her Government and 
her various races, were faced with four years of the most 
terrible and widespread war ever fought upon this earth. 


XXVI 
THE NEW ORDER 


On January 9, 1921, it was announced at Delhi that Lord 
Chelmsford would be succeeded by Lord Reading, Lord Chief 
Justice of England. The appointment was generally welcomed. 
Lord Reading had, as Attorney-General, been a member of the 
Cabinet. He had been charged with a financial mission to the 
United States at a critical period of the war, and later on had 
held the position of High Commissioner and Special Ambas- 
sador at Washington. 

On January 10 H.R.H. Arthur Duke of Connaught landed 
at Madras with his suite. He was to inaugurate the new order. 
Many years before he had served in India, first as a General 
officer and then as Commander-in-Chief of the Bombay Army 
and member of the Bombay Governing Council. Later on, 
together with H.R.H. the late Duchess of Connaught, he had 
attended the Coronation Durbar of 19038. Everywhere he had 
earned warm esteem and regard from all races and classes. 

On January 12 His Royal Highness opened the new Madras 
Legislative Council, on the 31st the Bengal Legislative Council, 
on February 8 the Chamber of Princes at Delhi, on the following 
day the Council of State and the Imperial Legislative Assembly, 
and at the end of February the Bombay Legislative Council. 
He sailed from India on February 28. Throughout his visit 
he had been dogged by the surly obstruction of the non-co- 
operators; but by his earnest words and by his personal 
influence he had done much to secure a propitious beginning 
for the new era. He had also given a far-shining example of 
the unselfish devotion to duty which characterises his House. 


‘See India in 1920, p. 66. 


222 FROM 1914 


At Delhi, on February 9, His Royal Highness had read a 
message from His Majesty the King-Emperor, conveying con- 
gratulations to the Assemblies present and to all the new 
Provincial Councils, After reading the message he congratu- 
lated the Viceroy on the transition into life and reality of the 
scheme of political progress of which His Excellency and the 
Secretary of State were the authors. He finished with a 
personal appeal spoken with an evident emotion which com- 
municated itself at once to his audience with visible effect. 
‘* May I claim your patience and forbearance while I say a 
few words of a personal nature? Since I landed I have felt 
around me bitterness and estrangement between those who 
have been and should be friends. The shadow of Amritsar has 
lengthened over the fair face of India. I know how deep is 
the concern felt by His Majesty the King-Emperor at the 
terrible chapter of events in the Punjab. No one can deplore 
those events more intensely than I do myself. I have reached 
a time of life when I most desire to heal wounds and to reunite 
those who have been disunited. In what must be, I fear, my 
last visit to the India I love so well, here in the new capital 
inaugurating a new constitution, I am moved to make you a 
personal appeal put in the simple words that come from my 
heart, not to be coldly and critically interpreted. My experi- 
ence tells me that misunderstandings usually mean mistakes 
on either side. As an old friend of India, I appeal to you 
all, British and Indians, to bury, along with the dead past, 
the mistakes and misunderstandings of the past, to forgive 
where you have to forgive, and to join hands and to work 
together to realise the hopes that arise from to-day.” 

The Duke’s visit encouraged assertion of loyal and respon- 
sible opinion. The Ruling Chiefs once more expressed their 
devotion to the Throne. The new Councils began work in 
peace and harmony. But away from the council-chambers, 
among the masses, among the youth of the educated classes, 
the sowers of racial hatred were scattering their seeds far 
and wide, suiting their appeals to the temper of each audience. 
Muhammadans were told to expect a restoration of Muham- 
madan rule brought about through Afghan or Turkish assistance. 
Sikhs were encouraged to anticipate the return of a Sikh king- 
dom. Factory and railway hands were incited to demand 
impossible wages. Landless labourers were promised land, 
cattle and the abolition of caste. Tenants were told that 
when English rule went, no rent would be payable. All were 
taught that the only obstacle to the attainment of Swaraj 


THE NEW ORDER 2238 


and a resultant millennium was the presence in India of a few 
Englishmen and the English army. Although the employment 
of force was rarely advocated, in deference to Mr. Gandhi’s 
avowed policy of non-violence, all harangues were charged with 
the same spirit of bitter hostility and necessarily bore bitter 
fruit. | 

In Oudh, where agrarian legislation had been for some 
time delayed by the war and was overdue, non-co-operators 
vigorously exploited the grievances of the tenants. In January 
1921 a large portion of the province was in uproar. One-third 
of a district was reduced to anarchy by the belief that the 
British Raj had ceased to exist. 

In the same month there was a bloody affray in the Punjab ; 
while in Assam inflammatory appeals to ignorant tea-garden 
labourers led to riot and disorder. As the campaign developed 
in various provinces, mobs of ruffians, with the name of Gandhi 
upon their lips, carried intimidation and terrorism far and 
wide, while Khilafat orators kindled the flame of religious 
frenzy. During the year 1921 there were sixty outbreaks of 
varying gravity in different provinces. Murder, riot and arson 
resulted. Crime generally increased. The climax came in 
the slaughter, rapine, foul outrages on Hindu women and forced 
conversions of Hindus to Islam which marked the Moplah 
rebellion. 

In March 1921 Mr. Gandhi, apparently in answer to critics 
of his destructive activities, proposed to concentrate for three 
months upon collecting subscriptions, upon removing the 
curse of untouchability from the depressed classes and upon 
inducing every Indian home to employ the hand spinning- 
wheel. The Indian nation by spinning its own thread and 
wearing its own cloth would throw off the curse of modern 
commercialism, and achieve Swaraj. In June the prophet 
decreed a vigorous boycott of imported cloth and its destruc- 
tion by fire. Indian mill-shares soared; and in July the 
Tilak Swaraj Memorial Fund had risen to a very large sum.’ 
The Khilafat Fund was also considerable. Mr. Gandhi pro- 
claimed in Young India that he could see the time coming 
when he must refuse obedience to every State-made law, 
even though bloodshed might certainly follow. The public 


1 The Government had incurred the resentment of many members of the 
commercial classes through the failure of the Secretary of State to stabilise the 
rupee at the recently declared ratio of 10 Rs. to the sovereign. In reliance on 
the declaration large orders had been placed in England for goods of which 
delivery proved extremely unacceptable owing to a very rapid fall in exchange 
and in market prices. See Chirol, India Old and New, pp. 264-7. 


224 FROM 1914 


orations of his Muslim associates, the Ali brothers, after 
some futile negotiations, became more truculent than ever, 
Emissaries of revolt grew far more numerous, and, through 
their constant harangues, “‘ racial feeling increased to such a 
degree that the position of British officers in the various ser- 
vices became in certain localities almost unbearable.” + In 
September Mr. Gandhi announced that both the Congress and 
himself had for some time been tampering with the loyalty 
of the sepoy and would spread disaffection until they were 
arrested. In October the Ali brothers were brought to justice 
and sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment. Mean- 
time a dangerous movement had developed in the Punjab, 
where agitators had been operating for some time and the 
Sikhs were both dissatisfied with their proportion of elected 
seats on the Provincial Legislative Council and disposed to 
think that the retorms and the policy of the Government 
toward non-co-operation meant the break-up of an empire. 

In October 1920 a large Sikh meeting at Lahore was 
addressed by Mr. Gandhi and his principal lieutenants. Leaders 
of the riots of 1919 and released revolutionary convicts of 1915 
attended. Strong appeals were made to the military, religious 
and political traditions of the audience, which, remembering 
that the original Sikh kingdom had arisen from the ruins of 
Moghal dominion, declared for non-co-operation. Political 
agitation blended with religious unrest. Hindu practices had 
developed in various Sikh shrines, the Mahants or abbots of 
which held command of large funds. Accusing these Mahants 
of malversation and of tampering with the purity of the Sikh 
religion, a newly constituted Shrines Committee of non-co- 
operative tendencies claimed control over all shrines. They 
were opposed by conservative Sikhs; but bands of their fol- 
lowers wearing a costume resembling that worn by the fanatical 
Akalis, who fought in the forefront of Ranjit Singh’s battles, 
began to seize shrines forcibly ; and Mahants applying to the 
Government for assistance were referred to the law-courts. 

At Nankana, one of the richest shrines in the province, lived 
a wealthy Mahant of an indifferent reputation and a stubborn 
character. Fearing a violent attack and unable to obtain a 
police-guard, he arranged a defence on the pattern of pre- 
British days, employing armed guards of his own, who allowed 
a band of 180 reformers to enter the shrine enclosure on 
February 20, 1921, and then massacred them all. The Mahant 
was at once arrested; but crowds of infuriated Sikhs flocked 

1 India in 1921-2, p. 84. 


THE NEW ORDER 225 


to Nankana and terrorised the countryside. Military assistance 
was employed, and further bloodshed was avoided. But more 
shrines were seized by the new Akalis ; and a Bill introduced by 
the Government into the Provincial Legislature was withdrawn, 
as it failed to satisfy either conservative or advanced Sikhs. 

In May 1921 a gang of Sikhs armed with stolen revolvers 
was arrested. In the following September the Shrines Com- 
mittee endeavoured to organise their bands of Akalis into an 
army. Prices were very high after two years of poor harvests 
and there was much economic discontent. Large reductions 
in the Army had filled villages with returned soldiers. 

Altogether the position was highly critical. For long it was 
difficult for the Government to avoid the appearance of inter- 
ference in a religious dispute; and in January 1922, after the 
release of some Sikh agitators, the numbers of the Akalis 
rapidly increased. They began to terrorise villages, to march 
about in bands, to travel in trains without payment, to start 
village courts which inflicted barbarous punishments, to pro- 
claim the overthrow of the Government and the coming restora- 
tion of Sikh rule. At any sign of opposition they concentrated 
for action, and in some districts overawed the police. In 
March 1922 they were attacked by the Government police and 
military forces. Within a month about 1,000 Akalis were 
arrested and brought to justice, and for a time peace was 
restored. But in September riots between Hindus and Muslims 
at Multan would have produced most serious results but for 
the exertions and level-headed impartiality of the British 
district officer; and later on the Akalis again challenged the 
patience of the Government. They had been encouraged by 
extensive Congress propaganda in towns and villages and by 
assertions in newspapers that their operations were part of a 
‘non-violent? and therefore permissible campaign. Latterly 
a Babar Akali association has been murdering loyal Indians 
in cold blood. 

The neighbouring United Provinces were in 1921 visited by 
a “‘ oreat wave of criminal agitation with free incitements to 
revolution, massacre and assassination.’?! Grave outbreaks 
occurred and the situation degenerated until vigorous action 
was taken. Finding, moreover, that non-co-operation among 
the masses was assuming a Bolshevist* complexion, the 
Government of these provinces organised Aman Sabhas 


1 Speech of Sir Harcourt Butler, Governor United Provinces, Lucknow, 
October 24, 1921. 
2 Bolshevist literature has been constantly entering India. 


IN—lL5 


226 FROM 1914 


(anti-revolutionary leagues) in all districts, presided over 
by district officers assisted by non-officials, which achieved 
considerable success partly because the rural classes had now 
been considerably leavened by thousands of men whose outlook 
had been broadened by service abroad in the Army and Labour 
Corps. Crowds of villagers attended Sabha meetings as well 
as the meetings convoked by non-co-operators. Remedial 
agrarian legislation improved prospects in Oudh. Later on 
both in these Provinces and in the Punjab Hindu and Muham- 
madan relations became seriously strained. 

In April 1921 Lord Reading had succeeded Lord Chelmsford ; 
and since the previous February the new Legislatures, Imperial 
and provincial, had discussed a variety of subjects. Landlords 
and lawyers predominate on these bodies. But in Western 
education and in all the methods of politics the former stand 
at a serious disadvantage. Debates have been conducted with 
punctilious decorum. 

The Imperial Legislative Assembly began by debating 
martial law administration in the Punjab in April 1919. The 
Duke’s appeal was fresh in all memories; and a resolution 
brought by an Indian member was met in important par- 
ticulars by the Government speakers, was amended, and was 
passed unanimously after a discussion which had been purged 
of bitterness. The sessions proceeded in harmony; and the 
Legislature accepted the Government’s proposals for fresh 
taxation. In the following September a debate on a resolu- 
tion moved by a private member in the Legislative Assembly, 
in favour of the introduction of provincial autonomy and of 
dyarchy in the Central Government, ended in that Government’s 
decision to communicate to the Secretary of State “‘ the view 
of the Assembly that India’s progress on the path of consti- 
tutional reforms warranted a re-examination and a revision of 
the present constitution at an earlier date than 1929.” In 
the course of the debate the Home Member had reminded the 
Assembly that it represented only 1,000,000 registered voters 
out of 250,000,000 of people residing in British India, and 
that of this million only 182,000 had recorded their votes. 
He added that the spirit of nationality had not permeated the 
masses or the rural areas. It was no Indian Republic that the 
Moplahs were seeking to establish, but a Muhammadan Republic 
with the Khilafat flag as their banner. There were other very 
obvious divisions between the various races of India; and 
for many years to come the unifying influence of the British 
administration would be necessary for the protection of 


THE NEW ORDER 227 


minorities. The Government was trying to develop a spirit 
of nationality in the country, but could not neglect patent facts. 

The Central Government’s letter on this subject was prac- 
tically answered by Mr. Montagu in the House of Commons 
on February 14, 1922; and after his resignation, which took 
place in the following month, his successor, Viscount Peel, 
replied in a formal despatch to the same effect, observing that 
it would be without precedent if a constitution deliberately 
framed to provide a basis for development in whatever direction 
experience might indicate were to be brought under review 
within a few months of its inauguration. It was clear that 
sufficient time had not elapsed to enable the new machinery 
to be adequately tested. 

Except in Madras there are as yet no signs of a develop- 
ment of a real party system in the new Parliaments. The 
work of provincial ministers and Legislative Councils has 
been affected by financial stringency and other circumstances. 
The world-atmosphere in 1921 was disturbing. The masses 
were bewildered by the reforms and by the tolerance accorded 
to Mr. Gandhi and his lieutenants. Labour troubles in England, 
events in Egypt and Ireland, seemed to many to predict a very 
early retirement of England from her position in India. The 
new legislators, while upholding law and order on the Councils, 
did little to fortify the minds of their constituents against the 
assaults of the revolutionaries. The attack on Government and 
society in the country was met by the Services of the Crown 
and by the Police, officers and men, the latter showing remark- 
able courage and constancy. 

On November 17, 1921, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales landed 
at Bombay and received a warm welcome. But on the same 
day brutal rioting, stirred up by the non-co-operators, pro- 
duced such horrors that even Mr. Gandhi declared that Swaraj 
stank in his nostrils. His penitence, however, was, as always, 
short-lived. But a Bombay casualty-list of 53 killed and about 
400 wounded, combined with hartals at Calcutta and else- 
where, largely produced by terrorism and violence on the part 
of the ‘*‘ national volunteers,”’ impelled the Central Government 
to reconsider their attitude toward non-co-operation, and to 
instruct Provincial Governments to take vigorous measures 
to combat the terrorism and violence employed by its exponents. 
This change of attitude soon produced marked effects and the 
pestilence began to abate. 

Although at various towns His Royal Highness was dogged 
by the malicious attentions of non-co-operators, he achieved 


228 FROM 1914 


some remarkable triumphs. The story of his tour has been 
given to the world. 

Mr. Gandhi was preparing to renew his efforts to produce 
‘* civil disobedience’’ when another bloody tragedy ! marked 
the course of his campaign. Again he hesitated, and, at a 
conference held at Bardoli on February 11, 1922, resolved to 
suspend mass civil disobedience and other parts of his offensive. 
But this change of temper did not please some of his followers ; 
and once more he moved toward ‘civil disobedience.”? His 
course, however, was run. On March 10, 1922, he was at last 
arrested. His trial passed off with absolute tranquillity. His 
defence was frank: ‘‘I knew the consequences of every one 
of my acts. I knew that I was playing with fire. I saw the 
risk, and if I were set free, I will still do the same.’’ He was 
sentenced to be kept in simple imprisonment for six years. 
His principal lieutenants were already in jail. The rest had 
been deprived of definite objectives by the Bardoli resolutions, 
and could not longer quote the privileged immunity of their 
leader in proof of his miraculous powers. The law was enforced 
uniformly, and the land had rest. 

Later on, however, certain prominent agitators were released, 
on the expiration of their sentences, and took part in a meeting 
of the Congress held at Gaya at the close of the year, when a 
new offensive was discussed. The result of various delibera- 
tions is a programme which includes efforts to collect further 
subscriptions for the Tilak Swaraj Memorial Fund, a boycott of 
selected English goods, and a campaign for the purpose of 
enlisting the ‘‘ very selfishness ’’ of peasants and labourers in 
support of non-co-operation. A movement for entering and 
capturing the legislative bodies in order to paralyse the con- 
stitution has many admirers and will gather volume as the 
1923 elections draw near. Already Municipal Boards in some 
cities of the United Provinces have largely succumbed to 
non-co-operative canvassing. In December 1922 a member of 
a ‘‘ Citizen’s Protection League’ stated in a Calcutta Indian 
newspaper ? that the ramifications of non-co-operation extended 
to almost every town and village in Bengal, that its ‘*‘ emissaries 
of hate’? were busy making profits from subscriptions levied 
ostensibly for national schools and the attainment of Swaraj, 
that it still controlled a large part of ‘‘ the vituperative and 


1 A police-station at Chauri Chaura (United Provinces) was set on fire and 
all its inmates but two were beaten to death. The assailants were a body of 
men marching with set purpose. 

2 The Amrita Bazar Patrika. 


THE NEW ORDER 229 


mendacious section of the Indian press.” We may also note 
that a recent statement of the accounts of the Central Khilafat 
Committee disclosed very large expenditure on ‘‘ National 
education’? and propaganda. 

Non-co-operation is apparently in process of conversion by 
its leaders into a less spectacular but little less mischievous 
movement. Their objective is unchanged if their methods 
are altering. British power in India must be overthrown in 
order that from its ruins the fabric of Swaraj] may rise. 
Whether it be the old Swaraj of the Marathas, or the later 
kingdom of the Sikhs, or Muslim sovereignty restored in its 
ancient glory, or a Bolshevik paradise, can afterwards be 
arranged. All that matters is that between the realisation of 
all these ideals stand British rule and British officials. 

It is difficult to see how any members of the professional 
and trading classes can imagine that they would comfortably 
survive the anarchy which would ensue from the unrestrained 
conflict of these clashing interests, particularly as their present 
position is a product of British rule. But it seems that the 
supporters of non-co-operation belong largely to these very 
classes, and that, while individual Moderates have boldly de- 
nounced the movement, the National Liberal Association which 
represents Moderate political opinion has so far done very little 
to combat the strenuous campaigns of racial fanatics in the 
electorates. The general attitude of Moderates toward the agita- 
tion, which has already caused a succession of bloody tragedies 
and is still busily active, has, so lately as December 27 last, been 
described by one of their own leaders as “ lacking in vitality, 
timid in its support of Government remedial measures and 
prone to allow a long rope to the non-co-operator.’? Sir Manakji 
Dadabhoy exhorted his friends to range themselves frankly and 
fearlessly *‘ on the side of society and civilisation’’ ; he warned 
them that ‘‘India, shattered by political dissensions and 
rapidly gliding down toward revolution and anarchy,” could 
not possibly be either politically or economically great and 
could not ‘*‘ expect to have the sympathy and the blessings 
of the world in her struggle for freedom.” But what he calls 
‘the struggle for freedom’”’ has proved a far more attractive 
pursuit than the struggle against non-co-operation. This is 
not surprising; but the burden on Government and its officers 
has been all the heavier. 

India’s financial and industrial history and affairs are dealt 
with in another part of this hook. But reference must be 
made to the fact that the Central Government has now found 


230 FROM 1914 


it necessary to restore financial equilibrium by raising the 
salt duty to its figure from 1888 to 1902, an enhancement 
which means a burden of about threepence a head per annum 
on India’s populations at a time when the wages of labour 
have risen very considerably and the prices of food-grains have 
fallen. The restoration was preceded by thorough and deter- 
mined efforts at retrenchment in all branches of administration 
civil and military, but although accepted by the Council of 
State it has been definitely rejected by the Imperial Legislative 
Assembly, which could suggest no alternative taxation. In 
order therefore to avoid a sixth successive annual deficit which 
would have further depreciated India’s credit, the Viceroy has 
‘‘ certified’?! this year’s Finance Bill for reasons convincingly 
expressed in a communiqué of March 29, 1923. It seems 
probable that the Assembly was influenced by considerations 
connected with the approaching elections. But in view of the 
vital interests at stake, the incident is not encouraging. 

Another remarkable occurrence has been the publication of 
the report of the Fiscal Committee appointed in 1921 and 
consisting of eleven members, of whom seven, including the 
President, were Indian and four were English. The general 
ad valorem import tariff was in March 1922 raised from 10 to 
15 per cent. and it seems probable that a protective policy will 
be rapidly developed. It is considered necessary to secure 
the intensive industrialisation of India. But attempts to 
hurry India have been fruitful in warnings, and the voice of 
consumers will make itself heard. 

The past two years have been marked by other important 
events, by the pre-eminence of frontier defence problems, 
by the conclusion of a satisfactory peace with Afghanistan, 
by the alliance between that Power and Turkey, by the aboli- 
tion of the Press Act, the Rowlatt (Emergency) Act and other 
measures stigmatised as repressive, by debates over very 
difficult questions connected with the position of Indians in 
British colonies, by demands for the reduction of the army, 
for the accelerated Indianisation of civil and military Services, 
and by announcement that steps would be taken to Indianise 
entirely eight regiments as an experimental measure. Another 
noteworthy event is the rejection by the Imperial Legislative 
Assembly of the Government’s Indian States (Protection from 
Disaffection) Bill, which was subsequently certified and passed 
into law by the Viceroy. The Act received His Majesty’s 
assent after a debate in the House of Commons, where it was 

1 See p. 215. 


THE NEW ORDER 231 


opposed by the Labour party. Dyarchy has been introduced 
into Burma. A Bill for removing racial distinctions from the 
Criminal Procedure Code has passed harmoniously through 
the Imperial Legislature. Of less happy omen are the grave 
and growing discontent of the Imperial Services with their 
financial condition and uncertain prospects, and the rapid 
shrinkage of British recruitment, matters which are about 
to receive investigation from a Royal Commission. 

And behind all political questions are problems supremely 
important to the people and their rulers which politics tend 
to push into the background, the means by which the land can 
be made more fertile for the growing multitudes who dwell 
thereon, the provision of capital for enterprises of a modern 
type and the application of the educational system to the 
provision of good practical instruction both for the man who 
will work with his hands and for the man who requires the 
knowledge to supervise him. 

The Indian National Congress was started by men who 
were naturally attracted by ideals which they had learnt from 
English teaching. They were joined by certain Hindus who 
looked back regretfully to the days of the Peishwas and to 
far more remote times, who resented Western rule and the 
impact of Western civilisation. The Nationalist movement 
sprang from the combination of these two parties with their 
somewhat incongruous ambitions. Its history up to August 
1917 is summarised in these pages. In that month the British 
Cabinet, anxious to mect all reasonable Indian aspirations 
and to accord grateful recognition to India’s war-services, in 
spite of obvious dangers and difficulties, made a declaration 
which was intended to set the great sub-continent upon the 
path of responsible Government. India became a member 
of the Imperial Conference and of the League of Nations. 
A new constitution was framed which undoubtedly affords full 
opportunity to Indian Nationalists to lead their country in 
a peaceable fashion toward the goal so long demanded. 
This constitution has been in operation for more than two 
years; and British policy has been to allow it as wide a 
scope as possible. The men responsible for that policy, while 
venturing much, have naturally been reluctant to dispense with 
every safeguard and precaution by which the security and 
warfare of a great country have been buttressed in the past. 
Circumstances, however, have been eminently unfavourable to 
the new order. World-unrest and the general course of events 
have combined with organised revolution in India itself to dis- 


232 FROM 1914 


turb the popular mind and to loosen the cement which was 
binding together the complex elements of an enormous society. 
The task of Government has become far more difficult. But 
experience is helpful ; and from all the experience of past years 
one lesson emerges : without the presence in Indian self-govern- 
ment of a partner not only sympathetic, but strong enough to 
co-ordinate and harmonise the interests and ambitions of races 
and classes, the vision of prosperous and abiding unity will 
never be realised. 


CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES 


(Alexander’s date is accurate. 


B.C. 

327. Invasion of India by Alexander 
the Great. 

322. Accession of Chandragupta 
Maurya, 

269. Coronation of Asoka. 

232. Death of Asoka. 

175. Invasion of Menander. 


A.D. 

320-490. Gupta Empire. 

405-11. Fah Hian’s travels in India, 

605-47. Reign of Harsha. 

629-45. Yuan Chwang’s travels. 

712. Arab conquest of Sind. 

1000-27. Incursions of Mahmud of 
Ghazni. 

1175-1206. Conquests of Muhammad 
Ghori. 

1206-90. The Slave Kings of Delhi. 

1290-1320. The Khilji dynasty. 

1325-51. Reign of Muhammad bin 
Tughlak, 

1336. Foundation of Vijayanagar. 

1347. Foundation of the Bahmani 
Kingdom in the Deccan. 

1388. Break-up of the Tughlak 
sultanate. 

1450-1526. Lodi dynasty at Delhi. 

1498. Arrival of Vasco da Gama at 
Calicut. 

1510. Portuguese conquest of Goa. — 

1518. End of the Bahmani dynasty. 

1526. Babar’s victory at Panipat. 
Beginning of the Moghal Em- 
pire. 

1530. Death of Babar. 

1540. Decisive defeat of Humayun by 
Sher Shah. 

1545. Death of Sher Shah. 

1555. Return of Humayun. 

1556. Death of Humayun. Enthrone- 
ment of Akbar. 

1565. Battle of Talikota. 

1576. Akbar’s conquest of Bengal. 

1600. Grant by Queen Elizabeth of a 
charter to the East India 
Company of London mer- 
chants. 


233 


Other dates before A.D. 320 are approximate.) 


A.D. 

1605, Death of Akbar. 
Jehangir. 

1612. Defeat of the Portuguese at sea 
by the English. Establish- 
ment of an English factory at 
Surat. 

1615-18. Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe. 

1620. Danish settlement at Tranque- 
bar. 

1627-8. Accession of Shah Jehan. 

1640. Foundation of Madras. 

1658-9. Accession of Aurangzeb. 

1661. Cession of Bombay by Portu- 
gal to England. 

1664, French ‘‘ Compagnie des Indes ”’ 
established. 

1674. Pondicherry founded.  Sivaji 
enthroned as an independent 
Raja. 

1680. Death of Sivaji. 

1690. Calcutta founded. 

1702-8. Union of New and Old East 
India Companies. 

1707. Death of Aurangzeb. 

1708. Death of Gobind Singh, the 
tenth Sikh “ guru.” 

1714. Balaji Vishwanath becomes 
Peishwa. 

1739. Invasion of Nadir Shah. 

1740. Dupleix Governor of Pondi- 
cherry. 

1746-9. First Anglo-French war in the 
Karnatik. 

1751-4, Second Anglo-French war in 
the Karnatik. 

1756. Sack of Delhi by Ahmad Shah 
Durani. Capture of Calcutta 
by Siraj-ud-daula. 

1757. Plassey. 

1756-61. Third Anglo-French war in 
India. 

1761. Great defeat of the Marathas 
by the Afghans at Panipat. 

1764. Battle of Buxar. 

1765. Grant of the Diwani. 
Governor of Bengal. 

1767. Clive’sfinal departure fromIndia, 
Verelst Governor of Bengal, 


Accession of 


Clive 


234 


A.D. 
1769. Cartier Governor of Bengal. 
1772. Warren Hastings Governor of 


Bengal. 

1773. Passing of the Regulating 
Act. 

1774. The Rohilla War. Appoint- 


ment of Warren Hastings to 
be Governor-General, 

1775. Beginning of the first Maratha 
War. 

1782. Treaty of Salbai. 

1784. Treaty of Mangalore. Enact- 
ment of Pitt’s India Bill. 

1785. Retirement of Warren Hastings. 

1786. Arrival of Cornwallis. 

1792. Treaty of Seringapatam. 

1793. Establishment of permanent 
settlement of Bengali land- 
revenues. 

1795. Cornwallis succeeded by Shore. 
Capitulation of Kharda. 

1798. Wellesley Governor-General. 

1799. Capture of Seringapatam. Set- 
tlement of Mysore. 

1801. Annexation of the Karnatik and 
of the ceded districts of 
Oudh. 

1802. Treaty of Bassein. 

1803. Second Maratha war. Battles 
of Assaye and Laswari. Treaty 
of Surji Arjengaon. 

1804. War with Holkar. 
Monson. 

1805. Recall of Wellesley. Second 
administration and death of 
Cornwallis. Sir George Bar- 
low succeeds him, 

1807. Lord Minto Governor-General. 

1809. Treaty of Amritsar with Ranjit 
Singh. 

1812. Conquest of Java. 

1813. Notable renewal of the East 
India Company’s_ charter. 
Lord Hastings succeeds Lord 
Minto. 

1814-16. War with Nipal. 

1817-19. The Pindari and third Mara- 


Defeat of 


tha Wars. 

1823. Lord Amherst succeeds Lord 
Hastings. 

1826. First Burmese War and Treaty 
of Yandabo. 


1828. Lord William Bentinck Gover- 
nor-General. 

1829. Abolition of sati 

1833. Renewal of the East India 
Company’s charter. 

1835. Lord William Bentinck succeeded 
by Sir Charles Metcalfe. 


CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES 


A.D. 

1836. Lord Auckland Governor- 
General. 

1839-42. First Afghan War. 

1842. Lord Ellenborough succeeds 


Lord Auckland. 

1843. Annexation of Sind. 

1844. Sir Henry Hardinge succeeds 
Lord Ellenborough. 

1845-6. First Sikh War. 

1848. Lord Dalhousie becomes Gover- 
nor-General. Second Sikh 
War. 

1849, Annexation of the Punjab. 

1852. Second Burmese War. 
nexation of Pegu. 

1853. Last renewal of the Company’s 
charter. 

1854-6. Crimean War. 
reforms. 

1856. Annexation of Oudh. Lord 
Canning succeeds Lord Dal- 
housie. War with Persia. 

1857-8. The Mutiny. 

1858 (November 1). Transfer of Gov- 
ernment from the Company 
to the Crown. 

1861. Indian Councils Act. Estab- 
lishment of High Courts. 

1862. Lord Elgin succeeds Lord Can- 
ning. 

1864. Sir John Lawrence becomes 
Governor-General. 

1866. Orissa famine. 

1868. Shere Ali established as Amir of 
Afghanistan. 

1869. Lord Mayo succeeds Sir John 
Lawrence. 

1872. Murder of Lord Mayo. Lord 
Northbrook Governor-General, 

1875-6. Visit of Albert Edward, Prince 
of Wales. 

1876. Lord Northbrook succeeded by 
Lord Lytton. 

1877. First Delhi Durbar. 

1878. Vernacular Press Act. 

1878-80. Second Afghan War. 

1880. Lord Ripon succeeds Lord Lyt- 
ton. 

1882. Repeal of Vernacular Press Act. 

1883-4. Ibert Bill controversy. 

1884. Lord Dufferin succeeds 
Ripon. 

1885. Panjdeh incident. Third Bur- 
mese War. First Indian 
National Congress. 

1886. Annexation of Upper Burma. 

1888-94. Lord Lansdowne’s  Vice- 
royalty. 

1892. Enlargement of the Legislative 


An- 


Dalhousie’s 


Lord 


1912. 


1913. 


CHRONOLOGICAL 


Councils by a new Indian 
Councils Act. 

Lord Elgin (II) becomes Viceroy. 

Arrival of Plague in India. 

Famine. Great frontier War. 

Lord Curzon becomes Viceroy. 

Death of Queen Victoria. Crea- 
tion of North-West Frontier 
Province. 

Edward VII Coronation Durbar. 

Tibetan expedition. 

Partition of Bengal. Lord Cur- 
zon’s resignation. Lord 
Minto (II) Viceroy. 

Enactment of the Minto-Morley 
reforms. 

Death of King Edward VII. 
Lord Minto succeeded by 
Lord Hardinge of Penshurst. 

Visit of their Majesties King 
George V and Queen Mary to 
India. Announcement of al- 
teration of partition of Bengal 
and of the transfer of the 
capital from Calcutta to 
Delhi. 

Provinces of Bihar and Orissa 
and Delhistarted. Attempted 
assassination of Lord Har- 
dinge. 

Appointment of a Public Ser- 
vices Commission. 


1914 (August 4). Declaration of war 


1915. 


on Germany by Great Britain. 
Loyal response from India. 
On September 26 Indian 
Corps began to land in France. 
Advance of British-Indian force 


A.D. 


1916. 


1917. 


1918. 
1919. 


1920. 


1921. 


1922. 


1923. 


TABLES 235 


on Baghdad and retreat to 
Qut-el- Amara, 

Lord Chelmsford succeeds Lord 
Hardinge. Fall of Qut-el- 
Amara. Beginning of the 
Home Rule agitation. Not- 
able political meetings at 
Lucknow. 

Qut-el-Amara _— retaken and 
Baghdad captured. Declara- 
tion in Parliament on Au- 
gust 20 of a policy aiming at 
the establishment of respon- 
sible Government in India. 
Visit to India of the Secretary 
of State. 

Publication of Montagu-Chelms- 
ford Report. The Armistice. 

‘‘ Passive resistance’’ riots and 
repression thereof. Third 
Afghan War. Enactment of 
Montagu-Chelmsford reforms. 

Khilafat agitation. Non-co- 
operation preached. Parlia- 
mentary debates on Amritsar. 

Inauguration of the new legis- 
lative bodies by H.R.H. the 
Duke of Connaught. Lord 
Readingsucceeds Lord Chelms- 
ford. Gandhi agitation. 
Moplah rebellion. 

Visit of H.R.H. the Prince of 
Wales. Imprisonment of 
Gandhi. Agitation subsides. 

Finance Bill altered by the Im- 
perial Legislative Assembly, 
but restored and “ certified ” 
by the Viceroy. 


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B—ECONOMICS 


237 


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B—ECONOMICS 


I 
AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION 


if INDIA is essentially a country of small holdings. In many 


parts of the country the land is held mainly by families of 
peasant proprietors. In other parts the bulk of the land is 
owned by large proprietors, but even in such cases the tenant- 
in-chief has generally been protected by a series of Rent Acts 
which not only ensure him fixity of tenure during his lifetime, 
but often grant the right of descent of the tenure to his heirs 
on his death. The disruptive tendencies of the Hindu and 
Muhammadan laws have profoundly affected agricultural 
economy through encouraging the minute subdivision of land. 
Broadly speaking, all male members of the family—and in 
certain circumstances the widow and daughters too—have 
under these systems an absolute right to a certain share in the 
family property, and a partition of this among the members 
frequently results in the minute subdivision not only of the 
property, but even of the fields. Another cause of fragmen- 
tation has been at work. Except on the south-west coast 
and in eastern Bengal, where the rainfall is plentiful and 
assured, the holdings from a very early date were not compact, 
but so divided that each family received one strip of the highly 
cultivated land adjoining the village and protected by its wells, 
another of the intermediate zone, and a third of the outlying 
area which was poor and precarious and difficult to protect 
from wild animals. This system has now become stereotyped, 
and a change would not only involve a redistribution of the 
land, but would mean that a number of the inhabitants would 
have to leave the villages and build houses and wells nearer 
their holdings. 

The original size of the holding seems to have been based 
in a measure on the ploughing capacity of a yoke of oxen, the 
wealthier men taking in proportion to the number of cattle 
owned. But with the growth of population and the consequent 
land hunger there has been a constant tendency towards cut- 
ting down the size of the holding. Another and still more 

239 


240 AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION 


unfortunate result of this increase of the population has been 
the tendency on the part of peasant proprietors and secured 
tenants to sub-let at rack-rents portions of their holdings to 
sub-tenants, mainly of the lower castes. Over such a wide 
area as agricultural India it is difficult to generalise as to the 
present size of the holding, and, to give any true idea of the 
unit of cultivation, this should be supplemented by figures of 
the proportion let to sub-tenants. On an average, however, 
the holding may be said not to exceed five acres, is often scat- 
tered over a number of small fields and held not by single 
farmers, but by joint families. It must be borne in mind, too, 
that these small patches are devoted to the growing of staple 
crops and not market-gardening. 

Such conditions are not only inimical to agricultural progress, 
but afford little opportunity to the mass of the population of 
rising from their age-long poverty. Though the larger holders 
live in comparative comfort, the majority have too little land 
adequately to support themselves and their families, or even 
t6 occupy more than a portion of their time. Progress is 
impeded by indebtedness, lack of capital, and the conditions 
under which agricultural work is carried on in many parts of 
the country. Small and widely scattered holdings do not lend 
themselves to the employment of modern field implements, 
neither are the cattle ordinarily strong enough to work them 
nor to carry out more exacting processes of tillage. The Indian 
cultivator has adapted his implements and processes to the 
conditions under which he has to work and the materials he 
found at hand: he is slow to adopt more modern methods, 
not so much that he lacks the necessary skill or enterprise, 
as that many are not suited to his environment. 

A remarkable circumstance for a country of the size of 
India, broken as its surface is by mountains and deep valleys, 
is that its soils fall into very few distinctive groups. Within 
the groups, fields and tracts may vary widely in permeability, 
soil texture, supplies of plant food, etc.; but the general type 
prevails. Gujarat, the basins of the Indus and the Ganges, 
the deltas of the Brahmaputra, the Irrawaddy, and the east- 
coast rivers, are all fertile alluvium which responds readily to 
cultivation and on the whole is benefited by irrigation. Its 
characteristics are the large proportion of land which is cropped 
twice every year, and the dense population per acre cultivated. 
A region comprising most of the Bombay Presidency, Berar, 
parts of the Central Provinces and Haidarabad, contains some 
200,000 square miles of *“‘ Deccan trap,” distinguished by soils 


AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION 241 


extremely friable but very retentive of moisture, known from 
their predominating colour and crop as “‘ black cotton.”? These 
soils absorb moisture readily ; but the true deep black cotton 
soil is not well suited for irrigation. This tract is an area of 
extensive, rather than intensive, cultivation, and the population 
per 100 acres of cultivated area is less than half that of the 
deltaic region. 

Between these two well-defined areas comes, in the form of 
a broad loop, the third great stretch of Indian soils. It reaches 
from Rajputana to the confines of Bengal, and then turns 
southward, covering the Eastern Central Provinces, Mysore 
and most of the Madras Presidency, and thus enveloping the 
Deccan trap area. Its soils are for the most part derived from 
crystalline rocks characteristic of the Peninsula proper and 
present more diversity than either of the other two groups, 
though they are easily recognised by their colour, which passes 
through every shade of red from a deep tint to a yellowish 
brown. In this belt: are some of the most fertile tracts of 
India, and also portions which at present do not repay cultiva- 
tion, but at best only support a scanty debased herbage. 

The general distribution of crops. corresponds with this 
rough division of soils. The first area—the alluvium —carries 
large stretches of rice, wheat, jute, oil-seeds, sugar-cane, pulses, 
tobacco and indigo; the second is pre-eminently the land of 
cotton and millets; the products of the third are more varied 
and, according to situation and local conditions, comprise all 
the crops of India, but on a smaller scale. The second area— 
the Deccan trap—with those portions of the third area adjoin- 
ing it, are the parts of India which most frequently suffer from 
deficient rainfall, though, in the alluvium area, the Punjab and 
parts of the United Provinces are also affected at times. 

The following table, based on the figures for British India 
for 1917-18, a year of excellent rainfall and, therefore, one 
which places the second area in its most favourable light, 
illustrates the chief economic characteristics of these three 
tracts : 


_ Alluvium. | Deccan trap. epee ak 
Percentage of area cropped to total cul- 
tivable area. : . ; ; ‘ 65 78 57 
Percentage of area bearing two crops to area 
cropped . : ‘ : ; : 23 34 124 
Population per 100 acres of land cultivated 130 66 114 


IN—16 


242 AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION 


In a year of good rainfall in India little more than 100 acres 
of crops are raised for every 100 of population, whereas in 
Canada, in 1914, for every 100 of population 420 acres of crops 
were raised. 

The agricultural year is divided into four seasons, viz. June 
to October, the period of the south-west monsoon; October 
to December, the months of the retreating monsoon, often 
referred to as the north-east monsoon ; December to February, 
the cold weather; and March to May, the hot weather. The 
last, for the greater part of India, is the resting period of plant 
erowth. The south-west monsoon brings rain to Western 
India and the Northern and Central regions, as also to Bengal, 
Assam and Lower Burma. It is impossible to exaggerate the 
anxiety with which its approach is awaited and its progress 
watched. A good and well-distributed monsoon means abun- 
dant work, good crops and low prices; a bad monsoon means 
poor crops, contracting trade and shrinking revenues, and 
may, if continued, bring to some tracts the menace of famine. 
The eastern and southern part of the Peninsula proper receives 
only a few showers in this period: it derives its main fall 
from the retreating monsoon in October to December, at which 
time also some light showers, of great benefit to the late-sown 
crops of the Punjab and Central India, usually fall. There 
are thus two main seasons for sowing; the chief one is with 
the advent of the south-west monsoon and extends to the end 
of July; the other is commonly in October and November, 
to utilise the rains of the north-east monsoon. The former 
crops—known throughout most of India as the kharif—are 
harvested from September to December, and the late-sown ones 
—the rabi—in March and April. There is a well-marked 
distinction between the kharif and rabi crops in Northern 
India, as the latter have to withstand low night temperatures 
in the cold-weather months. In Madras, where such extremes 
of temperature are not experienced, there is not the same dis- 
tinction of kind between the crops of the two main sowing 
seasons. 

In spite of India’s large exports of raw vegetable produce, 
her agriculturists work mainly to feed the 820,000,000 of their 
own country. Her normal production annually of foodstuffs 
is some 80,000,000 tons, of which only 2 per cent. is exported. 
Before the war India produced in most years more wheat than 
all the Dominions combined, and yet her wheat-production is 
less than one-quarter of her rice-crop. In 1917-18, 82 per cent. 
of the area cultivated in British India was under food grains, 


y 
7 


AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION 243 


of which one-third was sown with rice. The next most impor- 
tant food crops are wheat, large millet, pulses, small millet, 
barley and maize. Among industrial crops the chief are 
cotton, jute and oil-seeds, but the acreage of these combined 
is only about equal to that under wheat alone. India gets the 
large crops she does from the immense areas on which they are 
sown, for the average yields per acre are low. In this connec- 
tion it must be remembered that Indian agriculture is pre- 
dominantly arable farming. Livestock and dairying do not 
play the part they do in the mixed farming of Europe, and 
consequently the tendency is to grow crops on lands which, if 
livestock were more important, would be devoted to pasturage. 
The yields per acre naturally differ widely in different parts, 
but for British India as a whole are usually taken as rice 1,060 
lb., wheat 800 lb., large millet 800 lb., barley 1,000 lb., cotton 
87 lb. (lint), jute 1,250 lb., linseed 350 lb., and sugar-cane 22 
tons of cane. 

/ Some brief notices may be given of the more important of 
these crops. fice is a vital factor in the country’s welfare. 
It is the most widely distributed of any of the crops, and in 
a good year occupies about 80,000,000 acres. Its produce 
forms the staple food of the people of Bengal, Bihar, Assam, 
Madras and Burma. It is essentially a crop for moist, humid 
climates and requires a fairly abundant rainfall. 

~ Wheat on the other hand is the great food crop of North- 
Western India, and is practically all grown north and west 
of a line from Bombay to Jubbulpore, chiefly in the Punjab 
and United Provinces. It is a winter crop, coming to 
harvest in March to May. Its acreage in a good year is about 
25,000,000. The same areas also produce barley (8,000,000 
acres), 

The millets, of which the chief are jowar (sorghum vulgare) 
21,000,000—22,000,000 acres and bajra(pennisetum) —13,000,000— 
15,000,000 acres —are almost entirely found west of a line drawn 
from Madras to Cawnpore, which also covers the cotton area 
of India. They are sown mainly with the south-west monsoon, 
but in the extreme south of the Peninsula cultivators wait 
for the north-east monsoon. 

India comes second to the United States in the weight of 
cotton produced. About 22,000,000 acres are annually sown 
with cotton, which yield about 4,500,000 bales of 400 lb. each. 
The main characteristic of Indian cotton is its short staple; 
which renders it unsuitable for spinning the higher counts. 
Efforts are being made in most parts of the cotton-growing 


244 AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION 


area to improve the staple, and these are meeting with a-fair 
measure of success, particularly in the Punjab. 

Oil-seeds (13,000,000 acres) cover a wide range of important 
industrial crops—e.g. linseed, rapeseed, groundnut and castor. 
The total value of the oil-seeds produced annually in India is 
placed at over £50,000,000. 

Jute (8,000,000 acres) is the great industrial crop of the 
Ganges —Brahmaputra delta. The annual production of bales 
of 400 lb. each increased from 2,750,000 in 1874 to 10,000,000 
in 1914. India possesses in this crop a most valuable monopoly. 

It is impossible to recite the minor crops. The most im- 
portant are sugar-cane, indigo, coco-nuts, pulses, spices and 
hemp. 

-« Of the crops grown on capitalistic lines, mainly by European 

planters, the most important are tea, coffee and rubber. 
Indian tea did not begin seriously to compete on the London 
market till the late fifties of last century. In 1868 the exports 
were 8,000,000 lb. In 1918 the area under tea was nearly 
700,000 acres and the production was 380,000,000 lb. The 
chief tea areas are in Assam and the Travancore Hills. 

Coffee was introduced into Mysore in 1830, and cultivation 
spread rapidly in Southern India. In the decade 1877-87 
insect ravages and low prices ruined many estates. The area 
under coffee is now about 210,000 acres, mainly in Mysore and 
the Shevaroy Hills in Madras. 

Though the first rubber estates were only planted in India in 
1902, they now extend to an area of 120,000 acres. The tree 
is grown mostly near the foothills in Malabar, Cochin and 
Travancore, and in the Mergui and Tavoy regions of Burma. 

The direction of measures for the improvement of agriculture 
rests with the provincial Departments of Agriculture, assisted 
by the Central Research Institute at Pusa (Bihar). The 
principal provinces maintain fully-trained scientific staffs, with 
trained agriculturists in the districts, while in British India 
there are now nine agricultural colleges with over 700 students. 
In addition, 146 stations have been opened where local crops 
and their treatment are studied in detail. The lessons there 
learnt are then carried out by way of demonstration on the 
farmer’s own field and with his aid. 

For reasons already indicated, serious difficulties presented 
themselves in bringing about any modifications of existing 
practices, and the chief success has been achieved in evolving 
and distributing new and improved strains of existing crops, 
possessing either superior yielding power or better quality of 


AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION 245 


produce. Where such strains could be cultivated by traditional 
methods with little or no additional cost, they have been 
readily taken up and brought increased income to the farmer. 
As an instance of the successful results obtained in this manner 
may be mentioned the introduction into the Punjab, after 
some years of experiment, of varieties of cotton of the American 
type to supersede the local short-staple type. Over half a 
million acres are now under these selected varieties, which are 
worth at least £1 per acre more than the local kinds. Some 
idea of the improvement which it is possible to effect by work 
on these lines may be gathered from the results of growing 
selected varieties of rice in Bengal, which have been found 
to give on an average from 246 to 490 lb. per acre more than 
the local strains. In view of the enormous area under this 
crop, the more general adoption of the improved varieties 
would mean an appreciable addition to the food-supplies of 
the country. 

Where, however, the change of varieties calls also for a radical 
change of methods of farming, the inherent difficulties in the 
way of improvement have asserted themselves. Though India 
has a larger area under sugar-cane than any other country of 
the world—in fact nearly half the world’s acreage—so small 
is her out-turn per acre that she finds it necessary to import 
large quantities of sugar, costing on an average some 20 crores ! 
a year. But the yields obtained in other countries can only 
be obtained by an outlay on good tillage and manuring which 
are beyond the means of the ordinary Indian farmer, and the 
demonstrations of the Agricultural Department have met with 
little response. With crops, such as sugar, where more costly 
and scientific cultivation is required, capitalist enterprise, 
with farms on a large scale, will probably have to step in to 
supersede, or at any rate assist, the small peasant farmer. 

Another line of advance started in the present century and 
possessed of great potentialities has been the improvement of 
wells by means of deep boring with power-plant, and the 
raising of water by use of small-power internal-combustion 
engines. In tracts subject to periodic drought work of this 
nature is of great practical importance, and its successful 
development has added not a little to the prestige of the various 
provincial Departments. 

All this work of agricultural improvement has to be patiently 
built up from the bottom. The majority of the Indian culti- 
vators are illiterate, and the method of suggesting improve- 

1 1 crore (= 100 lakhs) = 10 million rupees = £667,000. 


246 AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION 


ments through the medium of leaflets and speeches cannot be 
relied upon, as in Western Europe. Their place has to be 
taken by ocular demonstration. But the results obtained in 
a short time by a limited staff afford excellent promise for the 
future. 

Mention must be made of one more line of activity under- 
taken to improve the condition of the peasantry. An Act 
authorising the formation of co-operative credit societies was 
passed in 1904. The privileges were extended both to credit 
societies and those engaged in trade, e.g. for the purchase of 
agricultural necessities, or joint-stock sale of agricultural pro- _ 
duce. 

Agricultural credit was the first activity to be organised. 
The local money-lender is frequently the local trader; and, 
though he performs a very necessary service to the village 
community, the small farmer often finds himself hampered in 
any agricultural enterprise by the unpleasant necessity of 
handing over to the trader a large portion of his crop after 
harvest in payment of earlier debts. The security being in- 
different, the rate of interest charged is usually high: debts 
run on, the principal is rarely discharged, and the small farmer 
finds himself more or less permanently in the hands of the 
money-lender. Credit he must have to prepare for the coming 
harvest, and the best form yet evolved has proved to be co- 
operative credit. 

In 1919-20 there were 31,800 agricultural credit societies at 
work in British India, with a total working capital of 856 
lakhs! (say £5,660,000). This denotes one of the first steps in 
the organisation of the peasant farmer. The growth of non- 
credit societies has been much slower. In the same year there 
were only 597 such societies. Apart, however, from the regis- 
tered co-operative societies there are large numbers of associa- 
tions of cultivators in the villages working in close touch with 
the officers of the Agricultural Department in the production 
of pure seed, joint use of more efficient implements, etc. 


POPULATION 


The first attempt to take a general census of India was made 
between the years 1867 and 1871. Though the arrangements 
had not then been perfected, it paved the way for the first 
regular census on modern lines in 1881. The census of 1871 
showed a population of 207,000,000; that of 1881 of 253,000,000, 


1 1] lakh=100,000 rupees =about £6,670. 


AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION 247 


which had risen to 819,000,000 in 1921. Of this total 247,000,000 
were in British India and 72,000,000 in native states. Hindus 
form the great bulk of the population, numbering 216,750,000, 
followed by Muhammadans with 68,750,000. 

The density of the population varies enormously in different 
parts of the country. In the fertile plains of Bengal the aver- 
age 1s aS high as 551 persons per square mile, or many more 
than any HKuropean country except England and Belgium. 
The barren and rugged hills of Baluchistan, a country larger 
than the British Isles, contain a population of only six to 
the square mile. In Europe the density of the population is 
largely determined by the progress made in commerce or 
industries. In India, where three out of every four persons 
gain their livelihoodfrom the soil, the predominant factors are 
the fertility of the soil and the distribution of the rainfall. 
Throughout India the most thickly populated tracts are those 
with level fertile plains, where there is scarcely any land unfit 
for tillage and which enjoy an equitable rainfall. In parts of 
Bengal the population rises to over 1,000 per square mile, and 
while it is computed that agriculture in Europe cannot support | 
more than 250 persons to the square mile, there are tracts in 
India which support three and even four times that number. 

Though the past fifty years have witnessed the phenomenal 
growth of a few big commercial centres, such as Calcutta and 
Bombay, these have made scarcely any perceptible effect on the 
general distribution of the population. India remains essen- 
tially rural. There are in all 2,153 towns with a population of 
over 5,000, yet their total inhabitants number under 380,000,000. 
One-third of the whole population, viz. 102,000,000, still lives 
in villages with under 500 inhabitants, and nine-tenths in vil- 
lages of 5,000 inhabitants or under.’ ‘Treating as cities only 
those places with a population of over 100,000, India has only 
30 such cities with an aggregate population of 7,000,000, or 
2 per cent. of her population. 


II 
FORESTS AND IRRIGATION 


TuE connection between Forests and Irrigation may not be 
immediately apparent; but, in fact, the work of the man in 
the hills gravely affects that of the man in the plains. The 
forests are the headquarters of Nature’s irrigation scheme ; 
and as the vegetation on the hillsides is preserved, so is rain 

1 In India a place of 5,000 inhabitants or less is classified as a “‘ village.” —Ep. 


248 FORESTS AND IRRIGATION 


that falls on the hills given off in gentle flow to the benefit of 
the fields below; whilst, as may be seen in many parts of 
India, if the forests be denuded the hillsides are soon washed 
bare, whilst heavy tropical downpours damage by their floods 
the lowland cultivation and are then exhausted. The primary 
principle of forest administration in India has thus been, and 
must be, conservation, since on the prevention of floods and 
the regulated utilisation of supplies of water depend all the 
irrigation-works which mean so much to the livelihood of the 
peoples of India. 

The extension of cultivation has undoubtedly resulted in the 
cutting down of much forest growth, mainly on the plains, 
owing to the wasteful methods of primitive tribes who cut 
down and burn jungle to grow their crops. It was in the early 
sixties of the last century that a trained Forest Department, 
with preservation in the forefront of its policy, began to be 
organised. Over one-fifth of the total area of British India is 
now in the charge of the Forest Department. Of this area, 
exceeding 250,000 square miles, almost one-half is under direct 
control. The balance is still ‘‘ unclassed,”? i.e. the control 
consists of very little more than the collection of revenue and 
general supervision, until the area is either definitely given for 
cultivation or finally added to the ‘‘ reserved’”’ forests. 

The degree and method of control exercised over the forests 
varies with the purpose a forest is classified as serving. They 
are divided into: 

(a) Forests the preservation of which is essential on climatic 
and physical grounds. These are mainly on hillsides. 

(b) Forests containing valuable commercial timber, e.g. teak 
in Burma, the sal forests in Eastern India, the deodar and 
pines of the North-West Himalayas. 

(c) Minor forests supplying inferior timber and serving local 
needs for firewood, agricultural timber, grazing, ete. 

(d) ** Pasture’? lands. These are really grazing-grounds, but 
are managed by the Forest Department for convenience. 

In many parts of India, especially in the Peninsular area, 
the management of the third of these classes occupies much 
of a Forest officer’s time. In 1918-19 over 5,000,000 cubic feet 
of timber, 80,000,000 cubic feet of firewood, and 4,000,000 rupees’ 
worth of fodder grass, etc., were issued from this class of forests. 

The chief timbers and the forest industries of India are of 
more general interest than the supply of local requirements. 
The most famous of the timbers is teak, which for more than 
a century has been the wood most needed by the Navy. The 


FORESTS AND IRRIGATION 249 


estimated amount of teak annually available for world purposes 
is 280,000 tons, of which Burma supplies 225,000. This tree 
does not occur there in forests of pure teak, but scattered 
among other species. Trees are girdled three years before 
felling, and are then floated down the rivers. Exploitation 
is done mainly by commercial firms. Plantations of teak have 
been made elsewhere, notably in Malabar and Chittagong. 

Apart from this well-known staple, India possesses many 
beautiful hard timbers, suitable for parquet flooring, panelling 
and furniture, railway carriages, etc. Amongst these are 
padauk, a wood similar to mahogany, from the Andamans 
and Burma; Indian laurel wood; Indian silver-grey wood, 
and pynkado, an exceptionally strong wood; red cedar; 
gurjan ; and sisson, a wood of rich brown colour. Among the 
ornamental Indian woods already known in Europe may be 
mentioned rosewood, red sanders, sandal-wood, and satin-wood 
from South India. 

The utility of the forests does not end with their effect on 
cultivation and climate and the extraction of timber. Certain 
forest industries of high importance are also dependent on 
them. In the forefront of these comes the collection of lac and 
the manufacture of shellac, an essential ingredient in a vast 
number of modern articles ranging from varnishes to gramo- 
phone records and felt hats. Grasses are also extracted for 
the manufacture of paper pulp, and much attention is being 
given to the utilisation of bamboos for this purpose. Another 
purely forest industry is now being established on a commercial 
scale, viz. the collection of resin from the pines on the foothills 
and lower slopes of the Himalayas. The local factories, whose 
supply area can be greatly increased if necessary, yield nearly 
2,400 tons of resin and 156,000 gallons of turpentine. 

In the five years 1864-68 the average annual gross re- 
ceipts from forests were 3,7 lakhs of rupees, and the expendi- 
ture 2,4 lakhs. In the quinquennium 1914-18 these annual 
average figures had risen to 3,71 lakhs and 2,11 lakhs respec- 
tively, with a surplus balance of 1,60 lakhs. India has obviously 
in her forests not only a property vital to her well-being, but 
also one immediately profitable, and of incalculable potential 
value in the future. 

Irrigation. —Irrigation is constantly mentioned in connection 
with cultivation in India; yet it is difficult for anyone familiar 
only with English practice to realise what this means or entails. 
Thus, in 1917-18, two out of every nine acres of crop raised 
in British India were watered artificially, and the total areas 


250 FORESTS AND IRRIGATION 


so watered exceeded by 50 per cent. the cultivated area of 
Great Britain. Taking India as a whole, it may be said that 
there are certain parts, such as Lower Burma, Eastern Bengal 
and Assam, where the rainfall is plentiful to excessive. There 
are other tracts, and these form the majority, where the rain- 
fall in a normal year may be sufficient, but is liable to uneven 
distribution, or to such serious deficiency as to expose the tract 
to the danger of famine. Thirdly, there are parts, chiefly in 
the north, where the rainfall is ordinarily insufficient to mature 
the crop, and agriculture would be impossible without an 
irrigation system. 

The commonest sources of irrigation are wells and tanks. 
Exact numerical statistics are difficult to obtain, but probably 
nearly 80 per cent. of the crops of India are irrigated from 
wells. Tanks may range from small ponds to comparatively 
big storage works with sluices and outlet-channels from which 
water can be drawn to the fields. But it is in the construction 
of canals upon rivers that the achievements have been most 
remarkable. These are usually divided into two classes: those 
drawing their supplies from perennial rivers, and those which 
depend upon water stored in artificial reservoirs. The former 
are mainly found in connection with the snow-fed rivers rising 
in the Himalayas, which afford an inexhaustible supply of 
water; the latter are more common in the Peninsula proper, 
where it is necessary to impound the river-water in huge storage 
works which often form lakes of several square miles for use 
in the dry season. Of this class is the Periyar lake, constructed 
for the supply of the Madura district in Madras, where water 
was deficient. At a height of 3,000 feet above the sea-level 
a masonry dam 175 feet high was thrown across the Periyar 
river in its course to the western sea. An immense lake was 
thus formed, and this, by the construction of a long channel, 
which in its course tunnels the watershed, is used for irrigating 
200,000 acres in the Madura district. The general characteris- 
tics of this class of work are the same everywhere —costly and 
solid head-works on the rivers, and carefully aligned large 
canals as main distributaries, with many minor channels taking 
from them. It is in this class of work, involving great technical 
skill and requiring large sums of capital, that Government has 
played the largest part. 

The work was begun in 1885-36, when first the Cauvery 
and then the Godavari systems were constructed. After this, 
construction of irrigation works by private companies was 
tried, but proved a financial failure, and it was decided that it 


FORESTS AND IRRIGATION 251 


should be undertaken by the State out of loan funds. Since 
then progress has been rapid and constant. The main dis- 
tributary canals, alone, under the charge of Irrigation Officers, 
are now 13,000 miles in length. An area of 270,000 acres has 
on an average been added every year for the last twenty-five 
years to the total area irrigated in the Punjab alone, i.e. an 
addition to the irrigated area in one province of a tract com- 
parable in extent to the six northern counties of England. 
Not only have crops been thereby rendered safer and land 
previously under cultivation more productive, but land which 
for centuries had defied the labour and ingenuity of the culti- 
vator now carries a large population and grows heavy crops 
of cotton and wheat. For instance, ten years ago the land 
now occupied by the Lower Bari Doab Colony was desert 
without a vestige of cultivation. The waters of the rivers 
which skirt it, the Ravi and the Sutlej, had already been fully 
utilised and had none to spare; the Chenab, the river next in 
the north, was in like condition. But farther north still was the 
Jhelum river with water to spare. Some of this water was 
used to compensate the Chenab, whilst Chenab water was 
brought across the Ravi to convert the Lower Bari Doab from 
a desert to a tract yielding annually £2,000,000 of cotton and 
over £1,000,000 of wheat, besides other crops. Part of this 
land is specially reserved for officers and soldiers of the Indian 
Army who have had a distinguished military career. Such is 
the romance of irrigation in India, and such is the scale on 
which it is conceived. 

Several new projects of first magnitude have been prepared, 
perhaps the most important of which is the Sukkur Barrage 
in Sindh. This will involve the construction of a barrage across 
the Indus, nearly a mile long between abutments—by far the 
biggest work of its kind so far undertaken. From this barrage 
seven canals will take off, estimated to irrigate over 5,000,000 
acres, some 3,000,000 of which are now almost entirely un- 
cultivated. Its completion will throw open to cultivation a 
tract of country resembling Egypt in many of its characteristics, 
which it is hoped may rival it in its cotton-growing 
capacity. 

The area irrigated varies with the character of the season, 
but, taking the year 1919-20, the total area irrigated by all 
classes of works in British India amounted to a little over 
27,000,000 acres. The total length of main and branch canals 
and distributaries from which this irrigation was effected 
amounted to 66,754 miles. The estimated value of the crops 


252 FORESTS AND IRRIGATION 


irrigated by Government works amounted to £156,000,000, or 
double the total capital expenditure on the works. 

The return for irrigation expenditure is obtained by a charge 
for the water, a moderate one, usually levied on an acreage 
basis, or varying with the crop raised. In 1920-21 the Govern- 
ment had invested on major irrigation works £70,600,000, 
which, after making all charges for maintenance, interest and 
loss on works of an unproductive character and built only as a 
protection against famine, yielded a net profit of over 4 per cent. 

It has been truly said of these works, ‘‘ No similar works 
in other countries approach in magnitude the irrigation works 
in India, and no public works of nobler utility have ever been 
undertaken in the world.” 


III 
INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE 


Inp1A4, though ancient in handicrafts, is young industrially. 
From the time that the merchant adventurers of the West 
made their first appearance in the country, its delicate muslins, 
wrought by hand, were one of the most prized articles of com- 
merce, and frequent mention is made of the excellence of its 
velvets and brocades, and the skill of its workers in precious 
metals and ivory. Even at the present day there is a large 
internal demand for handwoven cottons, silks and printed goods. 
In 1918 it was estimated that there were still two to three 
million hand looms at work in India. But for a number of 
reasons India’s industrial development on modern lines was 
slow. Doubtless the absence of an energetic and enterprising 
middle class, to which the industrial revolution in England 
was mainly due, and the difficulty experienced in the first 
instance of adapting Western discoveries to tropical conditions, 
were contributing factors; but the main reason for the slow- 
ness of the development, both of India’s industries and foreign 
trade, was the lack of internal communications and the cost 
and duration of the voyage to the west of Europe, which was 
the birthplace of the modern industrial system. As soon as 
railways were introduced in India, large steamships took the 
place of sailing-vessels, and as the opening of the Suez Canal 
shortened the sea journey between Europe and India, there was 
a marked advance, not only in the trade relations with foreign 
countries, but in the growth of modern manufacturing industries. 

Though the valleys of the Narbada and the Tapti had been 


INDIA 


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INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE 253 


for ages devoted to the growing of cotton, it was not till 1851 
that the first cotton-mill was opened in Bombay by a Parsee, 
Mr. C. N. Davar. The industry was greatly hampered by 
the difficulty of procuring coal, which in the first instance, 
owing to lack of communications in India, was imported from 
England, and the number of mills increased slowly. In about 
thirty years’ time the number had risen to 68, but from 1890 
onward there was a rapid extension, interrupted only by the 
outbreak of the war. In 1920 there were in India 268 cotton- 
mills, containing 117,558 looms and over 6,500,000 spindles. 
They employ a daily average of 305,511 persons. The annual 
average production of yarn had then reached 630,000,000 Ib., 
and that of woven goods about 350,000,000. 

The jute industry, which is centred in Calcutta, started a 
little later. Its record is one of continuous progress, though 
the tendency has been rather to increase the number of looms 
and spindles in operation than mills at work. In 1919-20 
there were 76 mills, employing a daily average of 275,000 per- 
sons. The exports alone in that year ran into 583,000,000 
sacks and over 1,100,000,000 yards of sacking, of a total value 
of 52 crores of rupees. 

The predominant position occupied by these two industries 
may be gauged from the fact that, taken together, they give 
employment to more than half the number of persons employed 
in factories worked by mechanical power. There are in addi- 
tion a number of subsidiary industries in the shape of cotton 
gins and presses and jute-presses. 

If industries essentially combined with agriculture—such as 
tea, coffee and indigo factories—and mines and electric-supply 
stations be excluded, there were in 1919-20 4,376 factories, 
worked by mechanical or electric power, in India giving em- 
ployment to a daily labour force of slightly over a million 
persons. Next in importance to the jute and cotton mills 
may be placed the rice-mills, mostly in Burma, numbering 608 
and employing some 48,000 persons. Among other industries 
employing smaller numbers are oil-mills 168, saw-mills 130, 
engineering workshops 118, printing presses 116, railway 
workshops 66, flour-mills 55, iron and brass foundries 55, silk 
filatures 50, and sugar factories 87. The smallness of some of 
these numbers shows how the old traditional methods still 
persist in the villages and districts. 

Elsewhere in this book the recent political changes in the 
constitution of India have been described. To many, how- 
ever, interest in these is rivalled by interest in the industrial 


254 INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE 


development of the country. There has grown up in India a 
widespread belief that she is capable of much greater industrial 
effort on modern lines than hitherto. The events of the war, 
when she was largely cut off from her former sources of supply 
and compelled to make locally many articles previously im- 
ported, emphasised this. This feeling has found vent in move- 
ments from time to time to boycott foreign goods, and in 
schemes for starting small factories for the manufacture of 
articles in common use, often founded rather on enthusiasm 
than practical experience. 

The reasons for her slow start in modern industries have 
been noticed above. Even when a certain measure of success 
had been attained, the educated classes on the whole held 
aloof. There had always been a large and important trading 
section in the Indian community, but with the expansion of 
foreign trade this class found a safer and more profitable em- 
ployment for their capital in exporting the produce of the 
country and selling articles manufactured abroad than in 
embarking upon industrial enterprises, for which they lacked 
experience and technical knowledge. The whole idea of joint- 
stock enterprise was, too, foreign to Eastern conceptions, and 
thus it was left to Europeans and Parsees, whose natural 
abilities have won for themselves a leading position in Indian 
industries and commerce, to start most of the big industries, 
such as cotton, jute, coal, sugar, cement, iron, etc. So little 
did mechanical pursuits appeal to the educated classes that 
it was common, in the earlier days, in Indian-owned concerns, 
for the necessary technical skill to be supplied by European 
engineers and foremen. 

With the opening of the twentieth century a change of 
feeling became apparent. The handsome profits obtained from 
some of these industries, the growing difficulty of finding 
careers for the younger men educated on Western lines, alike 
attracted attention to these industries. A natural sentiment, 
too, desired a greater share for Indians in the development of 
the resources of their own country. The great industrial 
advance of Japan appealed strongly to the imagination of 
Indians, who saw in Japanese progress and efficiency an ex- 
ample of what could be accomplished by an Eastern nation. 
Under this stimulus many of the younger generation began to 
equip themselves with an industrial training, and, successful 
commerce having provided ample capital, the number of 
concerns owned and worked by Indians greatly increased. 
That a definite advance has been made may be gathered from 


INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE 255 


the fact that the number of large industrial concerns worked 
by mechanical or electric power has increased from 1,856 in 
1905 to 4,376 in 1920, and the number of joint-stock companies 
from 1,728 to 3,668. Though, looking to India’s natural re- 
sources, future progress, probably in an accelerated degree, 
may be considered assured, the difficulties should not be over- 
looked. Labour, though superficially cheap, is relatively 
inefficient, and, never having taken very kindly to factory 
life, it is somewhat unstable. In the higher mechanical skill 
required to carry out the more difficult technical tasks the 
Indian workman is still much behind his Western confrére. 
Though the number of trained men competent to direct and 
control the somewhat ignorant labour force is increasing, it 
is still inadequate for any large industrial expansion. Industry 
accordingly tends to confine itself to established lines, rather 
than branch into new ventures. Finally, in a tropical country, 
where nature is generally bountiful, but continuous manual 
labour trying, the attractions of agriculture and commerce 
may prove so far superior to those of the factory that the 
process of industrialisation may prove slower than in more 
temperate climates. 


FoREIGN TRADE 


The chief trade of India has always been with countries 
lying to the west. From very early times traders traversed 
the difficult north-west land-route to the Caspian and Black 
Seas. In the seventh century B.c. a sea-route was opened to 
the head of the Persian Gulf, and thence by caravan through 
Mesopotamia to Egypt and Syria. In the third century a.p. 
another sea-route to the head of the Red Sea was added. In 
those days India exported spices, precious stones and cotton 
goods, and took in return gold and silver, the baser metals 
and cloth. In subsequent centuries her trade hardly developed 
in nature or volume. Even the opening of an all-sea route 
between India and Europe by Vasco da Gama in 1498 brought 
no immediate change in the staple articles of commerce. The 
lack of metalled roads in India required all produce to be 
carried on pack-animals to the ports or rivers where boats 
could be used, and the area which ports could serve was there- 
fore very limited. Further, the cost of ocean freight round 
the Cape of Good Hope and the limited capacity of sailing- 
vessels rendered it impossible to carry bulky goods of low 
value, and consequently the Eastern trade was restricted to 
articles high in value but small in bulk. 


256 INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE 


The ships of the East India Company first visited India in 
1608; in the early days of their operations the Company’s 
annual fleet for the whole of its Eastern trade as far as the 
China Seas consisted of five or six ships, of which the largest 
was 600 tons. As late as 1818, when the abolition of the 
Company’s charter was under consideration, it was stated that 
the value of the trade was only £2,500,000. In 1834, when the 
Company’s trade operations ceased, the value of the whole 
trade (export and import) of India was only a little over 
£14,000,000 (taking the rupee as then equivalent to 2s.), of 
which the net import of gold and silver accounted for nearly 
one-seventh. Eighty years later (i.e. in 1913-14), the value 
of the total foreign trade of India exceeded £342,000,000 
(taking the rupee as equivalent to 1s. 4d.), of which the net 
import of gold and silver accounted for £25,000,000, and India, 
in the value of her foreign trade, was only surpassed by Great 
Britain, the United States, Germany, Belgium, Holland and 
France. In fact the last sixty years, when compared with the 
previous thousand, have witnessed a complete revolution in 
Indian trade. This great change has been mainly brought 
about by the introduction of railways and improvement of 
overseas communications, which have not merely opened the 
markets of the world to all parts of the country, but have 
given an immense stimulus to the development of India’s 
natural wealth. 

Before dealing with the distribution of this trade, it would 
be convenient at this stage to set out the principal heads of mer- 
chandise imported and exported, which will show the main 
lines of trade. For this purpose the average of the five years 
preceding the war may be taken; the war introduced so many 
disturbing factors that that period and the following years will 
be separately alluded to. 

Articles of import and export are classified for convenience 
of arrangement under the following heads : 


— Imports, Bxports. 


(crores) (crores) 

1. Food, drink and tobacco (grain, sugar, tea, spices, etc.) 21: 62-9 
2. Raw materials and articles mainly unmanufactured 

(cotton, coals, oils, silk, etc.) . 10:0 102°5 
3. Articles wholly or mainly manufactured (yarns, tex- 
tile fabrics, machinery, eitbies plant, ee hard- 

ware, glassware, etc.) . : ; : 111-8 51-8 


Total . : : : » . ; | 143°6 217-2 


INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE 257 


Under the first head the main article of import was sugar 
(13 crores), largely brought from Java. Grain (45 crores) 
and tea (138 crores) were the main items of export. 

Oils (4 crores) were the most important of the raw materials 
imported, and cotton (838 crores), seeds, largely oil-seeds (24 
crores), of those exported. 

The list of manufactured articles imported is wide and 
varied: piece goods (52 crores), machinery and other manu- 
factures of iron and steel (16 crores) were the most important. 
The manufactured articles exported included jute fabrics (20 
crores) and cotton fabrics and yarn (10 crores). 

In addition to the above, India’s net imports of treasure 
amounted to some 39 crores. 

The outstanding features of the above figures are (1) the 
excess of exports over imports and (2) the heavy absorption 
of silver and gold. By means of this excess of exports, India 
is able to liquidate her foreign obligations including charges 
for Government debt held in England, home charges for ser- 
vices rendered, freight and insurance charges, interest on 
foreign capital invested in India. The constant absorption of 
treasure in India is due to the hoarding habits of the people, 
stimulated by many centuries of war and oppression, and to 
the social demand for jewellery and ornaments. Pliny com- 
mented on this thirst of India for gold and silver nearly two 
thousand years ago, and it is likely to continue until the habit 
of banking becomes more common and the standard of living 
rises generally. 

In such a story of rapid expansion it would be natural to 
find a steady increase in the number of countries with which 
India trades direct, and this tendency has been more notice- 
able in the export than the import trade. The great bulk of 
the imports, both before and after the war, came from the 
United Kingdom. 

In 1918 the percentage shares of the different countries of the 
world in the import and export trade of India were as follows : 


Imports. Percentage, Exports, Percentage. 
United Kingdom . : . 64:1 | United Kingdom . ° a as 
Rest of eee , - 5-9 | Rest of Empire : ° ~ 14:3 
Germany 6-9 | Germany . ‘ . 5 11-6 
Java 5:8 | Japan. . ~ Os 
Japan. 2-6 | United States . 8-9 
United States . 2:6 | France 71 
Belgium . 2-3 | Belgium . 4-9 
Austria- Hungary 2-3 | Austria- Hungary 4-0 
France 1:5 | Italy 3:2 
Italy 1-2 | China . . 2°3 
Rest of world . 4-7 | Rest of world | . ° 11-8 


IN—17 


258 INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE 


India, indeed, is Great Britain’s best customer. Her share 
in the total exports of produce and merchandise of the United 
Kingdom in the five years 1909-13 was 11-9 per cent., whilst 
next came Germany and the United States with 8-4 per cent. 
and 6-5 per cent. respectively. These figures do not, however, 
disclose the full importance of India to the trade of the United 
Kingdom, as many of her exports to other countries are 
negotiated through bills on London, and are carried in British 
ships and insured in the London market. 

In the thirty years prior to 1918 Germany, Java, Japan and 
the United States had very considerably increased their exports 
to India. Java’s contribution consisted almost entirely of 
sugar, and that of the United States largely of mineral oil. 
Both the German and Japanese trade covered a large number 
of miscellaneous and very cheap articles. In big lines Germany 
chiefly figured in piece goods, metals and dyes, and Japan in 
silks. In the matter of exports, prior to the war, Germany was 
the chief recipient of rice and raw hides; France, Britain and 
Germany of oil-seeds ; Britain, Germany and the United States 
of jute; Britain of wheat and tanned hides. Since the war 
the percentage shares of the principal countries have under- 
gone some change. The share of the United Kingdom in 
1921-22 had slightly fallen off, while both Japan and the 
United States had improved their position, the import per- 
centage of the former having risen to 5:1 per cent. and of the 
latter to 8-1 per cent. 

In this highly organised and widespread trade the sudden 
outbreak of the war in August 1914 produced temporary chaos. 
Many of India’s markets were cut off, and a heavy drop of 
prices ensued in articles which had hitherto been exported in 
large quantities to the Continent, such as cotton, oil-seeds, 
raw hides, etc. Soon, however, the dominant economic fea- 
ture of India’s export trade asserted itself, viz. that her exports 
consist of necessities, and not luxuries, of life, coupled with 
the fact that the necessities of peace are largely the essentials 
of war. In an ever-increasing degree India was called upon 
to assist in equipping the expanding armies in the East with 
all kinds of goods, from food, khaki and blankets to railway 
material. The list of essential articles of which India was 
the sole, or chief, source of supply is very large, and included 
jute and jute bags for all the sand-bags and sacking, mica for 
the magnetos and electrical apparatus, shellac, wolfram, man- 
ganese ore, opium for morphia, ete. She also contributed on 
a very large scale to other essential needs, e.g. 5,000,000 tons 


INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE 259 


of foodstuffs, 2,500,000 tons of oil-seeds—for margarine and 
lubricants—tea and tanned hides, which provided two-thirds 
of the uppers of all the boots of the British Army. As regards 
manufactured articles, practically all the railway material for 
Mesopotamia and Palestine, including 300,000 tons of steel 
supplied by Messrs. Tata’s iron and steel works, came from 
India, while her cotton-mills supplied khaki drill at the rate 
of 20,000,000 yards a year. | 

The economic effects of the war were much the same as in 
other countries. As elsewhere, it brought wealth to a certain 
class and generally benefited the agriculturists. But by in- 
creasing the cost of the necessities of life it bore heavily on the 
wage-earning classes and those who had to live on small in- 
vestments and pensions. A considerable increase in wages 
became inevitable, as also in the salaries of poorly paid Govern- 
ment servants, while further to alleviate the situation exports 
of grain foods were controlled. Unfortunately the seasons 
immediately following were bad, and the poorer classes derived 
proportionately less benefit from the increase in wages. A 
general wave of unrest spread through the main industrial 
centres, manifesting itself in a series of strikes on the railways 
and in the mills. 

During the post-war period India’s external trade has ex- 
perienced remarkable vicissitudes. Though the export of food 
grains was severely restricted, so great was the demand for 
Indian produce that in the year 1919-20 the total value of 
exports reached the record figure of 312 crores. By the spring 
of 1920 the inability of the European countries to pay for the 
goods they required became increasingly clear, and the effective 
demand for Indian merchandise fell away, with the result 
that there was a severe drop in prices. The figures, owing to 
the change in values, afford little index of this decline in demand, 
but it is estimated that on the basis of the declared values in 
1913-14 the merchandise exported in 1920-21 would have 
amounted approximately to 172 crores, as compared with 244 
in the former year. Similar conditions affected the import 
trade. The stocks of imported goods had been generally 
depleted during the war, and orders on a large scale were placed 
on the basis of a 2s. rupee immediately after the Armistice. 
Before the goods could be delivered in India both prices and 
the rupee had fallen heavily, and the merchant in India found 
himself faced with a serious loss. The market thus became 
flooded with goods for which there was little immediate pros- 
pect of sale. 


260 INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE 


Such a sudden reversal of conditions in both the import and 
export trade naturally caused great commercial and financial 
difficulty, and the following year was marked by a severe de- 
pression of trade. The latest figures, viz. those for the year 
1922-23, show some change for the better. There was a 
favourable balance of trade of 28 crores, as against an adverse 
balance of 81 in the preceding year, and more normal condi- 
tions seem to be returning. 


IV 
MINES AND MINERALS 


Tue history of the Indian mineral industry may be divided 
into three rather indistinct periods. The first of these com- 
prises the time when the country was self-supporting, and 
produced the few metallic and chemical products which a com- 
munity, chiefly agricultural, required. At that time the native- 
made copper and brass, iron and steel were alone utilised for 
the manufacture of domestic implements, the weapons of war 
and the chase. 

The second period gradually dawned through the shortening 
of the sea-route from Europe, the consequent lowering of 
freights, and the spread of railways in India. All these com- 
bined to enable the foreign manufacturer, both of metals and 
chemicals, to land his wares in the ports and bazaars, and to 
overcome the feeble resistance offered by the home-made 
article. This period witnessed the extinction of some of the 
ancient industries and the decay of the rest, while it resulted 
in almost exclusive attention being paid to the export of raw 
materials. 

The third period commenced with the quickening of Indian 
industrial life during the last decade or so; and it is now 
beginning to show signs of steady advancement to a stage 
reached in countries technically more highly developed, when 
the multifarious materials required by large groups of indus- 
tries are manufactured more economically locally than they 
can be imported from abroad. Iron and steel manufacture 
has been thoroughly established on permanent foundations, 
and the day will not be far distant when India will be self- 
contained as regards iron and probably exporting it on a large 
scale to other countries. Lead and silver ores are smelted in 
Burma, and sufficient lead is available to free India from any 
necessity of importing the metal. Refined copper is being 


MINES AND MINERALS 261 


produced, though here there is much room for expansion. 
India now makes the ferro-manganese required for her own steel 
industry. These instances, though by no means complete, 
will show the trend of development in this third and most 
interesting period. 

For many years there has been a marked increase in the 
output of Indian minerals. The progress is indicated in the 
table given below, which shows the production of those minerals 
for which regular and fairly reliable returns are available. 


OUTPUT AND VALUE OF MINERALS FOR WHICH RETURNS OF 
PRODUCTION ARE AVAILABLE 


Mineral. 1914. 1918, 1919, 
Coal ‘ : , : 3,907,380 6,017,215 6,746,171 
16,464,263 | 20,722,493 | 22,628,037 
Gold 3 A ; : ; 2,338,355 2,060,152 1,504,026 
; 607,388 536,118 507,260 
Petroleum . - : 958,565 1,131,904 |- 1,222,871 
259,342,710 | 286,585,011 | 305,651,816 
Manganese ore 1 ‘ z 775,220 1,481,735 1,030,887 
603,754 517,953 537,995 
Salt 2 ; : A : 483,289 1,645,195 1,215,681 
. 1,348,225 1,856,696 1,891,138 
Saltpetre . - ‘. z : 272,462 589,190 314,165 
15,545 24,740 17,550 
Wolfram . / 2 ; 175,150 726,681 359,696 
2,243 4,431 3,576 
Mica 2 : > A ‘ 3 237,310 625,741 575,632 
40,502 60,075 59,098 
Lead : 3 ‘ ‘ 202,330 450,477 445,761 
10,563 19,115 19,090 
Silver ; : ; , 26,896 295,696 324,728 
: 236,446 1,971,783 2,164,853 
Tin Ore and Tin ‘ ; : 34,957 134,635 160,766 
6,239 17,621 29,633 
Monazite . ; : . : 41,411 58,819 40,475 
1,185 2117 2,037 
Iron Ore . 7 : ; 441,574 492,669 563,750 
1 Export Values. 2 Prices without duty. 8’ Exports. 
Estimated total value of minerals of which returns are available: 
1914 F ‘ : P : ‘ . £9,945,636 
1918 : ‘ E 4 : . £15,634,045 
1919 < 4 ; ‘ . ; . £14,457,845 


(Notzr.—The value of the rupee is taken throughout at Is, 4d.) 


In the following pages the chief mineral resources of India 
are briefly sketched out. Limits of space preclude the mention 
of any but the most important of these. There are a number 


262 MINES AND MINERALS 


of others such as alum, antimony, barytes, bismuth, corundum, 
graphite, nickel, phosphates, steatite, and tin, of relatively 
smaller importance. 

Bauaite: Bauxite is the main source of aluminium, and 
extensive deposits have been found in the Central Provinces, 
in Chota Nagpur, Madras and Bombay. 

Borax: The borax lakes stretch from the Puga valley in 
Kashmir into Tibet proper. The crude material comes thence 
into the Punjab or the United Provinces. It is an old-estab- 
lished trade, mentioned as far back as 1568. 

Chromite: The Baluchistan deposits are in the Zhob and 
Pishin valleys. Others are worked in Mysore and Orissa. The 
mineral is the source of ferro-chrome used in the manufacture 
of chrome steel. 

Coal: The history of Indian coal-mining commences in 
1777, in Bengal. An output of 1,000,000 tons was raised 
about 1880. 

In 1919 it had risen to 22,500,000 tons. 

The mines find work for over 200,000 persons. Indian coal 
is the energy of India’s industrial existence, and of the total 
quantity raised more than 95 per cent. is consumed in the 
country by railways, jute and cotton mills, blast furnaces, 
workshops, factories and so on. 

The Gondwana coal-fields yield 98 per cent. of the produc- 
tion, and by far the greater proportion of this comes from 
Raniganj and Jherria, two fields in the Damuda valley (Bengal 
and Bihar). The first has an area of 500 square miles and is 
120 miles north-west of Calcutta, Jherria is 150 square miles 
in extent and 16 miles beyond Raniganj. There are about 
650 collieries in these two fields. Other important coal-fields 
in the same group are Giridih, Bokara, Ramgarh, North and 
South Karanpura and Daltonganj. Another belt of coal-fields 
occurs in the Godavari basin, with important collieries at 
Ballarpur in the Chanda district of the Central Provinces, and 
Singareni in Haidarabad. Of the Mahanadi fields, but two 
are as yet exploited—Sombalpur, or Raigarh-Hingir (Central 
Provinces), and Umaria in Rewa. 

The Mohpani and Pench valley coal-fields are close to the 
Satpura Hills in the Central Provinces. 

Coal of Tertiary age is mined on a large scale at Makum in 
the Lakhimpur district of Assam; at Khost (Baluchistan) ; 
at Jhelum, Punjab; and at Bikanir in Rajputana, 

Copper: In the Singhbhum and Dhalbhum districts of 
Bihar and Orissa there is a copper-bearing belt 80 miles long. 


MINES AND MINERALS 263 


Worked in the unknown past by the ancients, it is now being 
developed on modern lines. Large ore reserves exist at the 
Rakha mines, where smelting and refining of copper was re- 
cently started. 

Gold : Hundreds of gold workings exist, especially in Mysore, 
while gold-washing in the sands of rivers is a widespread occu- 
pation. The average annual production of gold in India over 
the past five years was worth over £2,000,000, and 94 per cent. 
of this came from Mysore. All the productive mines are on 
one * reef,’’ which averages about 4 feet in thickness and can 
be traced for only 3 miles, yet it has yielded gold to the value 
of over £50,000,000 since 1887. The mines are now about 
5,000 feet deep, and it is estimated that they will continue 
to yield for another twenty or thirty years. Power for the 
Kolar gold-fields is obtained from the Cauvery falls, 92 miles 
away. The same group of gold-bearing rocks recurs in other 
parts of India, where it has been worked from time to time. 
Few of these workings have proved successful when exploited 
by modern methods. 

Iron: Until comparatively recent times the manufacture of 
iron and steel in India, which dates from a remote antiquity, 
was a widespread industry. But failure attended all the earlier 
attempts to graft Kuropean methods on to the native processes, 
and the successful manufacture of iron and steel on a large 
scale in India is an event of comparatively recent times. There 
are now two large ironworks and one large steelworks in exist- 
ence, at Kulti in Bengal and Jamshedpur in Bihar. A third 
set of ironworks is under erection at Asansol (Bengal), and a 
fourth at Benkipur in Mysore. There are three great groups 
of iron-ore occurrences, the most important being found in 
association with certain old rocks of Peninsular India. They 
are abundant in Singhbhum, and in the Keonjhar and other 
states of Orissa. Here enormous quantities of high-grade ore 
have been found ; indeed, India possesses reserves which com- 
pare in quality and quantity with those of almost any other 
country in the world. 

Lead, Silver and Zinc: The great lead-silver-zine ore deposit 
of Bawdwin is situated in Tawnpeng in the Northern Shan 
States of Burma, about 600 miles by rail from Rangoon. It 
was worked for centuries by the Chinese, who extracted the 
silver and finally abandoned the mines in 1868. About 1912 
the real riches of the deposit were laid bare by European 
exploration. Very large quantities of high-grade ore have 
been proved, and lead-smelting with silver-refining are now 


264 MINES AND MINERALS 


established industries. The output of metallic lead in 1919 
was about 1,600 tons, and of pure silver about 172,000 ounces 
per month. 

Manganese: Indian manganese-ore mining commenced in 
1891. In 1907 over 900,000 tons were produced. The output 
of late years has averaged 570,000 tons annually, and in some 
years India has been the leading producing country in the 
world. The ores are used in the preparation of ferro-man- 
ganese, an essential commodity for the iron and steel industries. 
The largest deposits are in the Central Provinces. 

Mica: During the past twenty years India has contributed 
over three-fifths of the world’s total output of mica. There 
are two centres of mining activity, the first in the districts of 
Monghyr and Hazaribhag in Bihar; while the second, the 
Nellore zone, is in the east part of the Madras coastal region, 
and is about 8 or 10 miles broad and 60 miles long. The 
best grades of the Indian mineral are considered unequalled 
in the electrical trade. The exports in 1918-19 were nearly 
56,000 ewt. 

Monazite: Monazite sands occur on the sea-beaches of 
Travancore, and between Cape Comorin and Quilon there are 
five major deposits. Two companies extract monazite and 
export it to the United Kingdom, the United States and France, 
where the thorium contained in it is recovered as nitrate and 
used in the manufacture of incandescent gas-mantles. The 
Indian deposits are the largest in the world, and contain a 
much greater percentage of thorium than Brazilian monazite, 
which is its chief competitor. In 1918 over 2,100 tons were 
produced. 

Petroleum: Petroleum is found in Burma, Assam and the 
Punjab. The productive oil-fields of Burma lie east of the 
Arakan mountains in the Irrawadi valley, from the Minbu to 
the Chindwin district. Yenangyang, in the Magwe district, the 
most famous field, worked for hundreds of years by Burmese 
diggers, is only 1} square miles in extent, and is now covered 
with machine-drilled wells, some of which are over 3,000 feet 
deep. Its yield approximates 200,000,000 gallons per annum, 
and the crude oil is pumped to the refineries at Rangoon 
through a steel pipe 297 miles long. Farther north, in the 
Myingyan district, is the promising Singu field, with a produc- 
tion of 93,000,000 gallons per annum. Across the Irrawadi, 
in the Pakkaku district, is the Yenangyat field, giving about 
4,000,000 gallons every year. The yield of the Minbu field is 
about the same. 


MINES AND MINERALS 265 


From the Chindwin field over 1,000,000 gallons were drawn 
in 1919. 

Oil-springs occur in parts of Assam. The largest field, viz. 
that at Badarpur in the Cachar district, has an output of 
6,500,000 gallons. The smaller, Digboi, yields about 5,500,000 
gallons per annum. The only producing field in the Punjab 
is that of Khaur, 43 miles south-west of Rawalpindi. Drilling 
was commenced in 1915, and 750,000 gallons were produced in 
1918. 

Precious Stones: India produces a variety of precious and 
- semi-precious stones. Diamonds are still mined on a small 
scale in the Panna State. Precious garnets come from Rajpu- 
tana. The jade-mines are in Burma, while the Burma ruby 
mines, where the sapphire and spinel are also found, are known 
throughout the world. 

Saltpetre: Saltpetre is extracted from the surface soils col- 
lected round the villages of the Gangetic plain. The industry 
is prosperous during war periods. The output in 1918 was 
24,750 tons valued at £589,190. 

Silver: Vide Lead. 

Tungsten: Wolfram, the ore of tungsten, is found over a 
distance of 700 miles in Burma, from the Southern Shan States 
to the extreme south of the Mergui district. The Tavoy dis- 
trict is the most important, and out of Burma’s total of 17,300 
tons for the five years ending 1918, it alone accounted for 
14,300 tons. At the outbreak of the war, Burma was the 
largest wolfram-producing country in the world; but the de- 
mand for the mineral stimulated production elsewhere and led 
to the output of the United States and, later on, of China 
surpassing that of Burma. In 1917 India produced 4,542 
tons, but by 1919 this had fallen to 3,576 tons. 

Zinc: Vide Lead. 


V 
RAILWAYS 


Tue first line opened in India was from Bombay to Kalyan, a 
distance of thirty-three miles (one of three experimental rail- 
ways sanctioned in 1849), but railway construction on an 
ambitious scale really dates from the acceptance by the Court 
of Directors of the East India Company of the policy laid 
down in Lord Dalhousie’s famous minute of 1853, advocating 
the construction by guaranteed companies of a series of trunk 


266 RAILWAYS 


lines uniting the various provinces and connecting the trade- 
centres inland with the principal ports. By the end of 1859 
eight companies, with a contemplated mileage of 5,000 and 
an aggregate guaranteed capital of £52,000,000, had been 
floated in England, viz. (1) East Indian, (2) Great Indian 
Peninsula, (8) Madras (now merged partly in the Madras and 
Southern Mahratta and partly in the South Indian), (4) Bom- 
bay, Baroda and Central India, (5) Eastern Bengal, (6) Calcutta 
and South-Eastern (now merged in the Eastern Bengal Rail- 
way), (7) Scind, Punjab and Delhi (now merged in the 
North-Western), and (8) Great Southern of India (now South 
Indian) Railways. All these lines have since been acquired 
by the State, but some are worked for it by companies on a 
different basis to the old ones. 

Each of these companies contracted with the East India 
Company to construct and manage a specified line in return 
for the provision of land and the guarantee of interest varying, 
according to the market rate prevailing when the various con- 
tracts were made, from 44 to 5 per cent. on the capital outlay. 
Half of any surplus profit earned in any half-year was to be 
retained by Government to be applied to repay advances 
made under its guarantee, and while the railways were held 
on ninety-nine-year leases, the State reserved the right to 
take over any line after twenty-five or fifty years upon terms 
calculated to represent the company’s interest therein, against 
a corresponding right of the latter to surrender and receive 
payment of its capital at par. As above indicated, this option 
was eventually exercised. The railways constructed on these 
terms, though of great political and military value, imposed 
in some cases a considerable burden upon Indian revenues, as 
the expectations in regard to profits were not in all instances 
realised owing to heavy initial outlay incurred in the construc- 
tion of lines on the standard gauge, uneconomical alignment 
and alteration of routes, while later the fall in the exchange 
value of the rupee added to the burden of payments, which 
were fixed in sterling. The original policy was modified in favour 
of construction under subsidy, but without guarantee, and 
with a minimum of Government interference, but this attempt 
to attract capital was a complete failure, and in 1869 it was 
decided to raise the capital required for railway construction 
in India by direct State agency and to make working expendi- 
ture a charge on current revenues. By the end of 1879, though 
6,128 miles had been opened by companies and 2,175 by 
Government, the Famine Commission, appointed after the 


RAILWAYS 267 


great famine of 1877-78, pointed out that construction was 
still 5,000 miles short of the mileage needed to secure protec- 
tion of the country from the consequences of seasonal failure, 
and that the limit put upon the borrowing powers of the 
Government for railway purposes hampered progress. It was 
consequently decided once more to try and attract private 
capital under guarantee. Although the contract terms offered 
under the modified guarantee system were less favourable than 
previously, several companies were formed which have con- 
tributed materially to the development of the Indian railway 
system. 

The present general position as regards railways is as follows. 
At the end of 1920-21 the total mileage was 37,029, and fresh 
mileage amounting to about 1,800 was under construction or 
definitely sanctioned. Of the railway system, 26,000 miles 
belong to the State direct, and 19,000 are under systems be- 
longing to the State but leased to companies. 

The standard gauge on Indian railways is 5 feet 6 inches, 
but in 1870, chiefly for reasons of economy, the metric gauge 
of 3 feet 3% inches was adopted provisionally for certain new 
lines, and has since been a permanent feature of the railway 
system. There are some light railways on small gauges. At 
the end of 1921 over 18,000 miles were under the broad 
gauge, about 15,000 under the metre gauge, and the balance 
chiefly on a 2 foot 6 inch gauge. 

At the time railway construction was commenced doubt 
was expressed whether local customs and caste restrictions 
would permit much railway travelling. Such fears were soon 
belied. Fares were low and people rapidly availed themselves 
of the opportunity to visit places of pilgrimage and relations, 
and to use the railway for business purposes. In 1919-20 the 
State lines, which cover about seven-tenths of the total mileage, 
carried over 500,000,000 passengers for an average distance 
per person of 40 miles, and at an average fare per mile of a 
shade over a farthing. In the same year about 90,000,000 
tons of goods were carried, with an average lead of 232 miles, 
at a ton-mile rate of a little over one-third of a penny. 

Railway finance has already been alluded to in the preceding 
chapters, and, as there remarked, these properties have become 
a lucrative source of revenue. The total expenditure on 
State-owned lines, up to March 381, 1920, has been about 
£280,000,000, and some £50,000,000 more may be added for 
other lines outside the State system, In 1913-14 £12,000,000, 
which was then a record, was provided in the budget for capital 


268 RAILWAYS 


expenditure on State-owned lines, and similar provision was 
made in 1914-15. It was of course impossible to maintain 
such provision during the war; and the military demand in 
the East placed a most severe strain on the Indian system. 
Not only did ordinary replacement cease, but in 1917-18 alone 
420 miles of metre-gauge line were dismantled in India and sent 
to Mesopotamia and elsewhere. Altogether over 200 loco- 
motives, 5,500 vehicles and 2,000 track miles of rails were 
supplied by the Indian railways to the war. Thus not only 
was development stopped and maintenance checked, but 
resources were drained. Control of traffic was necessitated in 
India, and transport caused difficulties throughout 1920 and 
1921. Since the war, however, efforts have been made to cope 
with these deficiencies, and the aggregate provision for the two 
years 1920-21 and 1921-22 has been over 40 crores. 


VI 
FINANCE 


In the historical portion it has been shown that, in the early 
days of British rule in India, the three Presidencies of Bengal, 
Madras and Bombay were independently administered, even 
to the extent of maintaining separate armies of their own. 

The introduction of a central system of finance dates from 
1888, when by an Act of Parliament the administration of the 
finances of British India was centralised in the hands of the 
Government of India. By the Act of 1858, which transferred 
the governance of India from the Company to the Crown, the 
superintendence of the revenues and expenditure of India was 
vested in the Secretary of State in Council, the Government of 
India being regarded, in respect of the powers left to them, as 
merely the Secretary of State’s delegates. 

By the system thus created the provinces lost all power of 
separate taxation or borrowing, and were financed by grants 
made each year by the Governor-General-in-Council, which 
were earmarked for specific purposes and could be used for no 
other. The Government of India, in turn, were under the 
control of the Secretary of State in all important matters re- 
lating to alterations in taxation, borrowing, and all new depar- 
tures in fiscal policy generally. Modifications into this system 
were from time to time introduced, being mainly in the direc- 
tion of granting to the provinces more or less independent 


FINANCE 269 


resources and affording them an opportunity of deriving benefit 
from economies effected, or development of existing sources of 
revenue. These adjustments, however, in no way placed the 
provinces on a federal basis. Special revenues were merely 
assigned by the Government of India and were shown along 
with the corresponding expenditure in the Central Government’s 
budget, while the budget of each province had to be approved 
by the Government of India. 

Such a system was clearly incompatible with the due exer- 
cise of their functions by popularly elected councils, and would 
inevitably lead to recurrent friction between these bodies and 
the Central Government as regard the assignment of revenues 
to particular provinces. Accordingly, with the introduction of 
the recent political reforms, extensive alterations have been 
carried out in the domain of finance. 

Briefly, a separation has been made between Imperial and 
provincial finance, and the Indian revenues have been divided 
between the Central and Local Governments. The following 
are the main sources of revenue and the lines of division : 


Central Provincial 
Customs Land Revenue 
Income-tax Excise (spirits, drugs) 
Railways Irrigation 
Opium Stamps (judicial and non-judicial) 
Salt Forests 
Post and Telegraphs Registration 


In addition, the Provincial Governments have been given 
powers of taxation within spheres limited so as not to affect 
sources of revenue classed as Imperial. They are also able 
to borrow on the security of their revenues, either through the 
Government of India or independently, and some have already 
negotiated loans of considerable extent on the local markets 
for works of improvement, such as irrigation or city develop- 
ment schemes. 

To meet the loss so sustained by the Imperial Government, 
the provinces have been called upon to pay an annual contri- 
bution, amounting to about a crore of rupees. This, however, 
is of the nature of a temporary expedient, and a time is looked 
to when the Imperial revenues proper will suffice for Imperial 
needs and the special revenue contribution will be gradually 
done away with. When this is attained, the provinces will 
enjoy financial autonomy within certain limitations insepar- 
able from a federal status. Even now, the immediate outcome 


270 FINANCE 


is that the provinces collectively are better off by about 11 
crores a year than they were under the arrangements pre- 
viously in force. 

One result following from the division of the Indian revenues 
is that provincial receipts and expenditure no longer figure in 
the Imperial budgets, which merely include balancing trans- 
actions, such as the lump contributions from provincial to 
Imperial. This change appears in the budget statements of 
1921-22, when, for the first time since 18838, the provincial 
accounts were omitted from the revenue and expenditure 
statements of the Government of India. The total heads of 
subsequent years show a material decline which, in the main, 
is not due to decrease of income or reduction in expenditure, 
but to the elimination of provincial items of account. 

We may now proceed to the examination of the financial 
position of India during the recent years, and for this, purpose 
may commence with a table showing total receipts and expendi- 
ture during the ten years ending 1922-23 (the Indian official 
year, like the British, begins on April 1). The figures up to 
1921 relate to total transactions, Imperial and provincial ; 
from that date the figures are those of the Central Government 
only. It has been usual for a good many years past to set 
forth the total Indian revenue and expenditure in pounds 
sterling, converted at the rate of 15 rupees to the pound ; 
but, in view of the variations in Indian exchange and the 
uncertainties as regards the future, these transactions are now 
exhibited in rupees. The same course is taken in the state- 
ment that follows, giving the results in crores of rupees to one 
place of decimals. (A crore [10,000,000] of rupees at 15 rupees 
to the pound may be taken as corresponding roughly to 
£667,000; a lakh = 100,000 rupees.) 


Year. | Revenue. | Expenditure, 

| (crores) (crores) 
1913-14 P ‘: : 4 = z - 127°8 124°3 
1914-15 . : - ; ‘ : ‘ 121-7 124-4 
1915-16 . . : rs A g < 126°6 - 128-4 
1916-17 5 : Fi 3 : 2 : 147-1 135-4 
1917-18 e : : ; ; : 2 169-0 156:9 
1918-19 - : : é ‘ 4 A 184-9 190-6 
1919-20 4 : : ‘ . : 195-6 219-2 
1920-21 ‘ : ‘ - ; P E 206-1 231-2 
1921-22 (revised estimate) . ; ‘ : 108-9 141-9 


1922-23 (Budget estimate) . : ‘ : 133-2 142-3 


FINANCE 271 


It will be seen that in the first year of the period taken 
there was a material surplus, representing the prosperity which 
India had enjoyed prior to the war. In 1914-15 and the fol- 
lowing year there were deficits owing to circumstances con- 
nected with the war which dislocated India’s external trade 
and affected customs and railway receipts and, later on, owing 
to the expansion of military outlay for the defence of the 
Indian frontier. It was consequently necessary in 1916-17, 
and again in 1917-18, in order to meet the growing charges, 
and, in the latter year, to provide interest on the borrowing 
required for a war gift of £100,000,000 presented to the Home 
Government, to impose fresh taxation. This took the form of 
an increased income-tax with a super-tax in respect of large 
incomes, an enhancement of the customs tariff on imported 
goods, and a surcharge on railway goods traffic. 

Thanks to these measures and the prosperity of the country 
arising from good agricultural seasons and the demand set up 
by war conditions for essential products which India could 
supply, the years 1916-17 and 1917-18 showed large surpluses. 
From this time onward, however, the situation rapidly 
deteriorated. The year 1918-19, in which a surplus of four 
crores had been estimated, actually ended with a deficit of six 
crores. The close of the Great War was almost immediately 
followed by the Afghan War, which threw a large and unex- 
pected burden on India. Mainly owing to the cost of this war 
and synchronous troubles on the frontier, there was a still 
larger deficit in 1919-20, amounting to 24 crores. Forecasting 
the results of the year 1920-21, the Finance Minister again 
budgeted for a small surplus; but for a third year in succession 
disappointment followed, the deficit on this occasion being 26 
crores. The main reason which led to the excess over esti- 
mates was the extension of operations in Waziristan towards 
the close of the year. 

These deficits were financed for the time being by drawing 
on balances, increase of the floating debt and other temporary 
expedients. But in 1921-22 it became necessary to regularise 
the situation by further increases of taxation. With the 
assistance of enhanced customs duties, income- and super-tax, 
and with increases in the postal changes and rates on railway 
goods traffic, it was hoped that the revenue would so far exceed 
expenditure as to leave a small surplus. 

Unfortunately the country was beginning to feel the effects 
of the world-wide trade depression. The export trade was 
seriously affected and, as the demand for Indian products fell 


272 FINANCE 


away, exchange crumbled rapidly. These conditions reacted 
on the revenue, and the receipts from the principal sources of 
Imperial revenue, customs and railways, showed a marked 
decline ; while the depreciation of the rupee threw an additional 
burden on the revenues in the payment of home charges. 
Rising prices necessitated an enhancement of wages, the main 
weight of which fell on the State as the largest employer of 
labour. The cost of coal and plant of all description rose in 
proportion, and the combined effect of lower receipts and 
heavier expenditure was completely to upset earlier forecasts 
of the closing balance. The later accounts of the year ending 
March 1922 showed an estimated deficit of 83 crores. To 
balance income and expenditure, some further increases of 
taxation were introduced, mainly on the lines indicated above, 
and drastic measures are being undertaken to reduce expendi- 
ture, in particular military expenses. 

The main heads of revenue will be gathered from the follow- 
ing statement, which compares the actuals of 1913-14, the 
last full year before the war, with the estimated budget of 
1922-23, as passed by the Legislative Council: 


REVENUES: OF INDIA (IN INDIA AND ENGLAND) 


(IN CRORES OF RUPEES) 


Head. 1913-14. epee 

Land Revenue . : : . ° . 32-1 (provincialised) 
Opium ; 2-4 3:0 
Salt 5:2 6°8 
Stamps : 8-0 — 
Excise (spirits, drugs, Stout . 13:3 a 
Customs A é 11-3 45-4 
Income-tax . 2-9 22°1 
Forests 3°3 — 
Interest : 2-0 oo 
Posts and Telegraphs (net receipts) 5-4 1-7 
Railways (less working expenses) . 26°4 31-1 
Irrigation , ; : 71 — 
Military receipts . 21 5:5 
Currency, mint and exchange : : — 3:2 
Contributions from Provincial to Central 

Government. > : ° ‘ . _— 9-2 
Other heads e e e e e e 6:3 5:2 

Total ° P ‘ . ° 127-8 133-2 


The principal sources of Imperial revenue are now, in order, 
customs, railways and income-tax. 

The customs revenue is derived from— 

(1) A general ad valorem tariff, with somewhat lesser rates 


FINANCE 273 


for certain articles, such as food-grains, machinery, agricul- 
tural implements, railway plant, and iron and steel products. 

(2) Special and higher rates of taxation on articles such as 
arms, sugar, petroleum, tobacco, salt and matches. 

(3) Export duties on rice, jute, tea, and hides and skins, the 
last-mentioned being subject to a rebate of two-thirds in re- 
spect of exports within the Empire. 

The increase in customs revenue between the two years 
taken for comparison is due mainly to enhancements of the 
tariff. In 1918-14 the general import duty was 5 per cent. 
ad valorem, a material exception being the duty on imported 
cotton goods, which was fixed at 3$ per cent. only, counter- 
balanced by an equivalent excise duty on the products of the 
Indian mills. In respect of other articles subject to the import 
tariff, save in the special case of European liquors produced 
locally, there was no such countervailing excise, and the excep- 
tion made in case of cotton was resented as a concession to 
Lancashire agitation. In 1916-17 the general tariff was raised 
to 7$ per cent., and there were considerable increases in the 
import duties on liquors and tobacco, while in 1917-18 the 
import duty on cotton was raised to the general tariff level, 
the excise duty remaining at the previous 3$ per cent. In 
order to balance the Budget for 1921-22, the general tariff, 
including cotton, was raised to 11 per cent., the cotton excise 
still remaining at 34 per cent., and further increases were 
made in the special duties on liquors, tobacco and sugar. 
Articles of luxury, such as motor-cars, films and jewellery, 
etc., have also been placed in a special category of taxation. 

An export duty on rice, which comes mainly from Burma, is 
an old-standing impost. In 1916-17 export duties were also 
levied for the first time on jute and tea, and increased in the 
following year, while in 1919-20 exports of raw hides and skins 
were also taxed. The latter duty, it may be added, was im- 
posed not for revenue purposes but to afford encouragement 
to Indian tanners, and from that point of view may be con- 
sidered as partaking of a protective character. Otherwise, the 
imports duties have been imposed for revenue and not protec- 
tive purposes. 

The State owns most of the railways in India, working some 
direct as State lines, and leasing others out to companies, who 
obtain, as a rule, a guarantee of a certain return on their capital 
while sharing the surplus profits with Government. The 
receipt side of the Budget shows the net receipts from State 
lines—i.e. gross receipts less working expenses—and the ex- 


IN—18 


274 FINANCE 


penditure side the interest charges on the railway portion of 
the debt; while payments to and from companies figure under 
expenditure or receipts as the case may be. The railway 
transactions were for a long period a source of net loss to the 
Government of India, though this was set off by the economic 
development they helped to encourage. For more than twenty 
years, however, railways have yielded in most years an ex- 
panding profit and were a great stand-by during the financial 
situation set up by the war. In 1913-14 the net railway 
receipts (gross takings less working expenses) amounted to 
264 crores, and the interest and other charges shown on the 
expenditure side to 19-2 crores, leading to a resultant surplus 
of 7-3 crores. At one time during the war the net receipts 
rose to as much as 3874 crores. But from 1919-20 onward 
they have been very fluctuating, owing to increased working 
expenses and higher prices of coal; the main item of increase 
being in regard to pay of the staff, which has more than 
counterbalanced the enhanced railway rates, 

Income-tax was formerly levied at a uniform rate of 5 pies 
per rupee (about 6d. in the pound) on incomes above Rs. 2,000 
(£133), and 4 pies per rupee on those between Rs. 1,000 and 
Rs. 2,000; but in 1916-17 the tax was graduated and raised 
to a maximum of 1 anna in the rupee (or about 1s. 3d. in the 
pound), while in the following year a graduated super-tax, 
which might run up to 8 annas in the rupee, was imposed on 
incomes in excess of Rs. 50,000 a year. The latter was subse- 
quently converted into a flat rate of 1 anna in the rupee on the 
total of a company’s income in excess of Rs. 50,000. With 
effect from 1921-22, the ordinary income-tax has been raised 
to a maximum of 16 pies per rupee (or ls. 8d. in the pound), 
and the super-tax to a maximum of 4 annas in the rupee (5s. 
in the pound); on the other hand, in 1920-21 the limit of 
taxable income was raised to Rs. 2,000 a year. It should be 
explained, too, that the income-tax is not levied on agricultural 
products, as these are considered to be adequately dealt with 
by the land-revenue assessments. 

The apportionment of funds has left the income from Land 
Revenue, Forests and Irrigation with the provinces, but some 
portion of the receipts from these heads returns indirectly to 
the Central Government in the form of the provincial contri- 
bution. These, like the railways, are not taxation heads 
proper and, in case of Irrigation and Forests, represent the 
income derived from State properties, and, in case of the Land 
Revenue, the State’s ultimate share in the ownership of the 


FINANCE 275 


land. The State demand on the land was permanently fixed 
over a century ago in the greater part of the provinces of 
Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and in parts of Madras and the 
United Provinces. Elsewhere it is periodically revised by 
land settlements, the usual period of which is about thirty 
years, and is supposed theoretically to amount to one-half of 
the net agricultural profits. Modern assessments are, however, 
on a much easier basis. The incidence of land revenue may 
be taken, on a rough average, at 11d. per acre in the per- 
manently settled tracts, which now represents about one-fifth 
of the rental, and at 2s. per acre in the temporarily settled 
tracts. The receipts from Forests and Irrigation, which are 
now provincialised heads, are dealt with in another chapter. 

The main heads of expenditure in India and England are 
shown in the following table: 


EXPENDITURE CHARGED TO REVENUE OF INDIA 


(IN CRORES OF RUPEES) 


19 22-23 


Head. 1913-14, (estimated). 


Direct demands on revenue (refunds, charges 
for collection, etc.) ‘ ‘ : : 

Interest on ordinary debt 

Posts and Telegraphs . 

Salaries and expenses of civil departments . 

Miscellaneous civil charges ; 

Railways (interest and miscellaneous charges) 

Irrigation (working expenses and interest charges) 

Other public works F . ‘ : . 

Military services 

Currency, mint and exchange . ; 

Other heads , 


Total : : ; : : ‘ 124-3 142- 


> fond 
OTRO 
fans 
AROS AN 
Ooorw& b& cu 


font 
iN) 


oo 
ml eon 
m OCDomweonowe 
|-S3~ 
CnIS 


es 


The separation of the accounts of the Central Government 
and the provinces explains the apparent decline under the 
heads of direct demands on the revenue and the expenses of 
civil departments, the provinces being now responsible for the 
collection of their revenue and paying of civil officials. So 
far from there having been any actual decrease, by 1920-21, 
the last year of centralised accounts, the direct demands had 
risen to 22-2 crores and the expenses of the civil departments 
to 449, They have been affected by the necessity of the 
revision of salaries and establishments, and extensive educa- 
tional developments. The provinces now undertake their own 
public works, including irrigation. The change in the system 


276 FINANCE 


of maintaining the accounts has brought some of the miscel- 
laneous civil charges under the head of exchange. 

The increase under ordinary interest charges is due to heavier 
borrowings, and the higher rates that have to be paid on loans. 
Before the war the ordinary rate at which India could borrow 
was 84 per cent. The most serious item is that of military 
charges. In 1920-21 the total expenditure rose to 88 crores, 
largely on account of frontier troubles. In 1922-23 these 
operations were still proving expensive. The strength of 
India’s post-war army is somewhat lower than it was in 1913— 
14, but the cost has become very much higher, owing to the 
creation of new services, such as the Royal Air Force and 
Mechanical Transport, and to necessary improvements in the 
pay and amenities of the troops. 

In conclusion, it may be confidently said that in normal 
times the revenues of India are steady and progressive and her 
financial position good. For the past few years she has been 
suffering, like other countries, from financial embarrassments 
which are the aftermath of the war, which may be summarised 
briefly as a rise in prices (involving a large increase in salaries), 
military charges and exchange difficulties, | 


VII 
DEBT, CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE 


At the end of March 1922 the debt of India stood at about 
£224,000,000 in sterling and 405 crores in rupees, or in all about 
£494,000,000, taking rupees at 15 to the pound. Of the rupee 
debt some 278% crores represented debt of a permanent, or 
long-term, character, 404 crores short-term loans and 88} 
crores Treasury bills, of which, however, over 46 crores had 
not been issued to the public, but were held in the paper cur- 
rency reserve, a matter which will be dealt with later on. 
The greater portion of the debt is of what is termed a pro- 
ductive character, that is, it has been incurred for railways 
and irrigation works, whose returns for a long time past have 
been sufficient not merely to defray the interest charges on the 
debt, but to afford a surplus to the taxpayer. In 1915 the 
position was set out by the Finance Member of the Viceroy’s 
Council as follows: ‘‘ Out of a total debt equivalent to 
£274,000,000 outstanding at the end of March 1914, only about 
£13,000,000 represented ordinary or unproductive debt. The 


DEBT, CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE 277 


annual interest on the latter was £750,000 only, and on the 
productive debt about £8,500,000, so that our total interest 
charges amounted to some £9,250,000. Railways and irrigation 
works in the same year yielded us a return of £15,250,000. 
Thus, we had still left some £6,000,000 of clear revenue from 
our great capital undertakings, after meeting interest charges 
on our entire public debt.” | 

Since then the situation has undergone a material change, 
mainly owing to borrowings for purposes connected with the 
Great War, and subsequent operations in Afghanistan and on 
the frontier. 

Before the war the loans raised in India were not of a large 
character, and the highest level in any one year was 5 crores. 
The shutting-off of the home market owing to the war, and 
the heavy expenditure which the Government of India had 
to undertake on behalf of the Home Government in India, the 
ultimate repayment of which took place in London, led to very 
large appeals to the Indian market, while the old method of 
borrowing by long-term loans was largely superseded by short- 
term issues and by Treasury Bills. The result has been that 
a much larger proportion of the debt of India is held by her 
own people than was formerly the case, and future borrowings 
will take place so far as possible in India itself. They will, 
however, need to be supplemented on occasion by appeals to 
the London money market; in 1921 such a loan was floated 
in London for the first time after several years and was at 
once covered, while a larger loan has been successfully floated 
in India itself, the object of the latter being to convert or 
repay short-term obligations. 

Up to March 31, 1920, the total capital expenditure on 
railways owned by the State covering some 26,000 miles had 
been about 523 crores. As regards irrigation, the total capital 
outlay up to the same period on productive and protective 
major works was about 69 crores of rupees. ‘The latter has 
now been provincialised, and the loans since raised have become 
an obligation on the provinces concerned. The condition of 
the railways after the war, during which new plant was diffi- 
cult to obtain and urgent extensions had to be postponed, has 
called for large additional capital expenditure which is being 
provided mainly by fresh loans. 

Outside the debt figures discussed above there are other 
unfounded debt obligations of the Government of India, includ- 
ing Post Office cash certificates, which were introduced during 
_ the war on the analogy of the Post Office Savings certificates in 


278 DEBT, CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE 


England, Post Office Savings Bank deposits, various judicial 
and departmental deposits, balances of service funds and so 
forth, amounting to over £50,000,000. Of this, the Savings 
Bank balances account for some £386,000,000. On the other 
hand the Government of India had lent some £14,000,000 to 
Indian States, local bodies, agriculturists, etc. 

Questions relating to currency and exchange bulk largely i in 
Indian finance and require some detailed explanation. The 
British currency system in India was founded on that of the 
Moghal Emperors, whose heritage was gradually taken over, 
and had as its basis a coin known as arupee. With the decay 
of the Moghal Empire the coinage became greatly depreciated, 
but this was remedied as British rule became established, and 
in 1835 a uniform coinage for India was introduced, based on 
a rupee of a weight of 180 grains and containing 165 grains of 
pure silver, a standard which has since been adhered to. The 
rupee was, and is, legal tender without limit, and its weight, 
1 tola (a little less than half an ounce) is also the unit on which 
the Indian standard of weights are based. Each rupee is worth 
16 annas, and other silver coins were until recently the 
8-anna piece, which like the rupee was legal tender without 
limit, and the 4-anna and 2-anna pieces, which like the copper 
coins were legal tender only up to lrupee. In 1906 the l-anna 
nickel piece was introduced, while more recently nickel pieces 
of 2 annas, 4 annas and 8 annas have been issued to replace 
corresponding silver coins, all these being legal tender up to 
1 rupee only. 

The supplementing of specie coins by a paper currency was 
of slow and gradual growth in India. In the first instance the 
Presidency Banks of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras were per- 
mitted to issue notes payable on demand, but the circulation 
of these was practically confined to the cities in which they 
were issued. In 1861 the present note system was initiated ; 
the privilege of note issue was withdrawn from the Presidency 
Banks and made a State function. For the purpose of this 
system India was divided into various currency circles, and 
notes are only encashable, as a right, at the headquarters of 
each of these circles, though, as a matter of convenience, they 
are cashed also, so far as circumstances permit, at the local 
treasuries. The note circulation began, and at first progressed, 
in a small way, as was natural in a country which had grievous 
experience of political cataclysms and where the hoarding 
instinct was, in consequence, strongly developed; in the year 
1900 it was still only 282 crores. 


DEBT, CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE 279 


The encashment of notes was provided for by the establish- 
ment of a paper-currency reserve, which has played a great 
part in the problems of recent years, and which was consti- 
tuted on the English system, i.e. a certain amount of the 
reserve, fixed by legislation from time to time, was permitted 
to be held by Government paper; the remainder had to be the 
exact equivalent in rupees or silver bullion of the balance of 
the note issue. 

In the chequered history of Indian currency certain definite 
periods stand out with marked distinctness. 

The first of these is from the introduction of a uniform 
coinage in 1835 up to 1878, when the fall in the gold price of 
silver began to be felt. During the second period from 1873 
onward, the fluctuations in the value of the rupee caused the 
most serious embarrassment both to the trade and finances of 
the country and, after protracted deliberations, measures, 
which in the long-run proved fairly successful, were taken to 
stabilise it. And finally there was the war period, when an 
entirely new set of conditions came into operation. 

During the first of these periods the normal sterling value 
of the rupee was more or less constant at 2s., that is, it was 
treated as the equivalent to the British florin. 

As regards international exchange, the position was, and 
still is, that in normal years India exports considerably more 
than she imports, and there is consequently a large debt owing 
her year by year in London. Primd facie, this would have to 
be defrayed by the export of specie to India, but on the other 
hand India, as represented by her Government, has to make 
remittance to London to meet what are known as the “‘ home 
charges ’’—interest on her sterling debt, expenditure in connec- 
tion with the purchase of stores, material, pensions, etc. These 
were defrayed by the Secretary of State selling rupee drafts 
on the Indian treasuries. These sales were to the highest 
bidders ; but the sterling amounts obtained could not normally 
exceed the cost of procuring silver and remitting it to India for 
coinage, since that was an ever-open alternative. 

Up to 1873 the system had worked easily and smoothly: 
additions to the coinage and note issue took place automatically 
on presentation of bullion at the mints to be exchanged for 
rupees or notes, and the import of gold and silver was left to 
private enterprise. The Secretary of State’s council drafts 
were merely for the purpose of meeting his home charges, and 
trade was left to make its own arrangements for the remittance 
of specie to meet its remaining obligations. 


280 DEBT, CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE 


But about 1878 trouble began as a result of the fall in the 
value of silver as compared with gold and, in consequence, the 
rupee exchange kept dropping until the average rate for 1892— 
93 was only about 15d. This depreciation not only introduced 
the greatest uncertainty into trade transactions, but dislocated 
the finances of the State by greatly increasing the burden of 
liquidating home charges. 

It was consequently decided in 1893 that the Indian mints 
should be closed to the free coinage of silver, and that this 
should be undertaken only on behalf of the Government. The 
object was, of course, to enhance the exchange value of the 
rupee by giving it an artificial premium, for the settlement of 
India’s trade balance would now have to take place mainly 
through the Secretary of State’s council drawings, the old 
alternative method of sending silver bullion to India for coin- 
age being no longer available. It was hoped that, with these 
measures and by refraining from fresh coinage, the exchange 
value of the rupee would be gradually forced up to 1s. 4d., 
the permanent standard to be aimed at. 

By 1898-99 this goal had been attained, and the rupee, 
though its bullion value was only about 10d., had been screwed 
up to an exchange value of 1s. 4d., which it was to retain, 
with minor oscillations, for nearly twenty years. 

In 1899 the policy adopted was further developed, and 
sovereigns and half-sovereigns, which had been receivable in 
payment of Government dues since 18938, were declared legal 
tender to an unlimited extent; while provision was made for 
the renewal of rupee coinage at the discretion of Government. 
To guard against the risk of a turn in the tide making the 
rupee issues redundant, and thus weighing down exchange, the 
profit on coinage, i.e. the difference between the actual cost 
of turning out rupees and their 1s. 4d. value, was credited to 
a special fund, styled the gold-standard reserve, to be used 
when necessary to maintain exchange by the issue of gold. 
This gold-standard reserve, whose holdings were recently about 
£38,000,000, mainly in short-term British Government securities, 
was constituted in 1901, while the paper-currency reserve, 
previously referred to, now includes gold deposited in London 
as well as in India. 

The system thus initiated was in effect a sort of local bi- 
metallism. It is somewhat confusing, as is sometimes done, 
to speak of its reducing the rupee to the position of a token 
coin, for the essence of an ordinary token coinage, such as the 
British silver pieces, is that it is only legal tender up to a very. 


DEBT, CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE 281 


limited amount, whereas the rupee’s legal-tender functions 
are unlimited. 

The system was tested and, on the whole, emerged success- 
fully through a difficult period in 1907 and 1908, when a world 
monetary stringency, aggravated by a failure of crops in India, 
seriously threatened exchange. Matters ran smoothly after 
this till the war, and fresh rupee coinage, which had become 
necessary from 1900 up to the crisis of 1907, was resumed on 
a large scale in 1912. During the fifteen years ending with 
1913-14 the net absorption of rupees by the public in India, 
which had to be met by fresh coinage, amounted to about 90 
crores. At the same time there was a large import of gold 
into India. Most of the sovereigns thus imported found their 
way primarily into the paper-currency reserve in exchange for 
rupees or notes; but a material portion was subsequently 
absorbed by the public. Thus, in the twelve years ending with 
March 19138 this absorption for all purposes—melting, hoarding 
and circulation—amounted to £60,000,000, and in the same 
period the gold held in the paper-currency reserve in India 
had expanded from £5,750,000 to £19,500,000. Though never 
very popular, there was a considerable use of gold as currency, 
but rather as a substitute for notes than actual rupees. 

The first two years of the war brought about some dislocation 
of trade owing to stoppage of relations with enemy countries, 
but in the three following years the growing demand for Indian 
products and the curtailment of imports resulting from war 
conditions brought the average excess of Indian exports over 
imports to nearly £60,000,000 a year. Internally the country 
was prosperous: new trades were springing up, existing fac- 
tories were working at full pressure, and the enhanced price 
of agricultural produce brought wealth to the countryside. 
But the Government of India, which was taking an increasing 
share in financing military operations in the East, found the 
greatest difficulty in meeting the liabilities it had undertaken. 
Repayments being made by His Majesty’s Government to the 
Secretary of State for India in London, circumstances pre- 
cluded his remitting more than a small portion out to India 
in the shape of silver purchases. A situation was thus reached 
in which the Indian home balances were very large, while 
those in India were subject to constant strain and diminution. 

To meet the demands on the treasury, money was borrowed 
locally on an unprecedented scale. But in spite of these and 
other temporary measures, such as the prohibition of the 
melting of specie and of private import and export of gold 


282 DEBT, CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE 


and silver, with the issue of small notes for 24 and 1 rupee, 
the position kept on deteriorating; and in the first part of 
1918 India was in grave danger of having to declare inconverti- 
bility, which would have been a most serious disaster, politi- 
cally as well as economically. The danger was happily averted 
by special arrangements made with the United States, by 
which large supplies of silver stored in the American currency 
vaults were made available for India. From that time onward 
the Indian rupee balances were gradually built up again. For 
example, the return of the paper-currency reserve for January 
1921 shows that, out of a total of over 168 crores of notes, 
92 crores are covered by metallic holdings. 

Subsequent difficulties have been in connection with the 
exchange value of the rupee. In August 1917 the rising price 
of silver, which had reached 46d. per ounce (whereas the 
highest level attained in 1914 was 273d.) rendered it necessary 
to cut loose the rupee from its now traditional 1s. 4d. mooring, 
and to raise the price of the Secretary of State’s council bills 
to 1s. 5d., a figure which had to be further raised to 1s. 6d. in 
April 1918. Later, the price of silver, in regard to the pro- 
duction of which America is the main factor, was largely 
enhanced by the depreciation of sterling exchange as com- 
pared with dollars, and in 1919 the Secretary of State had 
gradually to raise his minimum rate to figures which progressed 
from 1s. 10d. to 2s. 4d. per rupee. 

The inconveniences caused by these constant changes in the 
exchange value of the rupee led the Government of India to 
appoint a Committee to inquire into Indian currency and ex- 
change and to provide, if possible, definite principles and lines 
of action for the future. The most important feature of the 
report of this Committee was that, for exchange purposes, the 
rupee should be fixed at 2s. gold, as opposed to 2s. sterling, 
and that British sovereigns and half-sovereigns should be legal 
tender at the rate of 1 sovereign to 10 rupees, instead of 1 to 
15 as formerly. These and various subsidiary recommenda- 
tions made were accepted and put into operation. But the 
high price of the rupee lasted only a short time. Owing to 
world conditions set up by the war, the market for Indian 
exports fell off very greatly, while at the same time India had 
a larger need of imports which she had not been able to obtain 
during the war period. The result was a material excess of 
imports over exports, and at the same time the price of silver 
fell greatly. Efforts were made to keep the rupee at the 2s, 
gold rate by suspension of council drawings and by sale in 


DEBT, CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE 283 


large quantities of reverse councils, i.e. sales in India of drafts 
on London. This method, however, proved futile in view of 
the continued excess of imports. Consequently, after over 
£50,000,000 had been sold in reverse councils, their further sale 
was stopped, and exchange was allowed to find its own level. 
After some fluctuations it appears to be settling down again 
to its old level of 1s. 4d. 

In conclusion, a short reference may be made to banking 
in India. Till lately there were three Presidency Banks, in 
Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, whose relations to the Govern- 
ment of India were somewhat analogous to those existing 
between the Home Government and the Bank of England, 
save that the banks had no right to issue notes. Recently the 
three banks have been amalgamated as the Imperial Bank of 
India, and accompanying this amalgamation the unified bank 
is required to open progressively a number of fresh branches 
which will enable it to become a much larger custodian of the 
Government balances. | 

Outside the Presidency Banks, a large amount of banking 
business is carried on in India by the great exchange banks, 
such as the National Bank of India, the Mercantile Bank of 
India, the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China and 
others, whose headquarters are in London or elsewhere outside 
India. The total number of these banks operating in India 
was seventeen in 1921. 

In addition there are twenty-seven Indian Joint Stock Banks 
with a paid-up capital and reserve of over Rs. 5 lakhs, whose 
head offices are located in India. 

The total deposits in all classes of banks in India increased 
from 97 crores in 1912 to 228 crores in 1921, or by over 135 
per cent. The respective shares in the total deposits are: 
Imperial Bank 82 per cent., Exchange banks 33 per cent. and 
Indian Joint Stock Banks 35 per cent, 


5 


C—MISCELLANEOUS 


285 


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V. Ball and R. R. Simpson, ‘‘ The Coal Fields of India,’’ Mem. Geol. 
Surv. Ind., vol. xli. 

L. L. Fermor, ‘“‘ Manganese Ore Deposits of India,’ Mem. Geol. 
Surv. Ind., vol. xxxvii. 

Holland, Sir T. H., ‘‘ Mica Deposits of India,” Mem. Geol. Surv. 
Ind., vol. xl. 

Numerous Papers in the Records, Geological Survey of India. 


Pusiic Works, Rartways, Erc. 


Minutes by the Governor-General of India (Lord Dalhousie), dated 
April 20, 1853, and February 28, 1856, respectively. 

Strachey, Sir John and Sir Richard, Finances and Public Works of 
India (1882). 

Chesney, Sir George, Indian Polity, chaps. xvii and xix (1894). 

Strachey, Sir John, India (1908). 

Annual Administration Reports on Railways in India, published 
by the Government of India, Calcutta. 

Annual History of Railway Projects, published by the Government 
of India, Calcutta. | 

Report on the Administration and Working of Indian Railways, by 
Thomas Robertson (1908). 

History of Indian Railways, 1920, Simla. 

The Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. iii, chap. vii, ‘‘ Railways and 
Roads ”’; vol. iii, chap. vi, ‘‘ Internal Navigation”; vol. iii, 
chap. v, ‘ The Ports of India.” 


FINANCE 


Strachey, Sir John and Sir Richard, Finance and Public Works of 
India (1882). 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 291 


Reports of the Indian Currency Committees, 1898 and 1899. 

Reports of the Royal Commission on Indian Finance and Currency 
(1914), and of the Committee on Indian Currency and Exchange 
(1919-20), 

The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Clarendon Press, vol. iv, chap. 
vi, ** Finance.” 

The following annual publications of the Government of India— 
(i) The Financial Statement and Budget; (ii) Finance and 
Revenue Accounts; (iii) Audit Report of the Comptroller and 
Auditor-General. 


EXCHANGE AND CURRENCY 


Reports of the Currency Committees of 1898 and 1899. 

Report of Royal Commission on Indian Finance and Currency 
(1914). 

Report of the Committee on Indian Currency and Exchange (1919- 
20). 

Annual Reports of the Controller of Currency, Calcutta. 

The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Clarendon Press, vol. iv, chap. 
xvi, ‘‘ Currency and Banking.” 

Paper on the ‘‘ Indian Currency System and Its Developments,” by 
Sir William Meyer, published in the Journal of the Royal Society 
of Arts for April 80 and May 7, 1920. 

Shirras, G. Findlay, Indian Finance and Banking. 


aed nen * 
ie 


INDEX 


Act, v. Regulation Act, Government 
of India Bill, etc. 

Administration, v. Clive, Hastings, 
Cornwallis, 137-140; 163, 165, 189- 
193, 214-216 

Afghanistan, 55, 76, 141, 143, 144, 153, 
211 

Afghans, 21, 25, 37, 55-58, 76, 116; 
campaigns v., 118, 119, 120, 122, 
141, 144, 211, 212 

Agriculture, 239-246 

Akalis, 33, 224, 225 

Akbar, 24-26, 28, 34 

Albuquerque, 9, 42, 43 

Alexander the Great, 15 

Ali brothers, 224 

Amirchand, 69 

Amritsar, 33, 103, 208, 209 

Arabia, revolt in, 181 

Arabs, 18 

Army (of E.I.C.), 78, 79; in Great 
War, 173, 174, 178, 195-202 

Aryans, 9-11, 14 

Aurangzeb, 9, 27-34, 50, 53, 54 


Babar, 21, 22, 28, 41 

Baluchistan, 8, 247 

Bengal, mutiny of Army, 129; 
tition of, 153 

Bentinck, Lord W., 111-117 

Bernier, 32, 34, 35, 38, 39, 44, 53 

Besant, Mrs., 179, 182, 184, 185, 187 

Bibliography, 287-289 

Black Hole, the, 68 

Boer War, 155, 157 

Bombay, 48, 60, 81, 89, 90 

Brahmans, 11, 12, 18 

Buddhism, 14, 18 

Burma, 109, 123; annexed, 149; 230 

Buxar, battle of, 74, 78 


par- 


Calcutta, 60, 67; Black Hole of, 68; 
112 


Canada, immigration incident, 175, 

Canning, Viscount, 128, 135, 137, 140 

Carnatic, fighting in the, 58-67; 
Nawab of the, 66-71 

Caste, 11, 12, 16, 20, 40 

Cawnpore, 132 


Ceylon, 45, 53 

Chamberlain, Mr. A., 185 
Chandernagar, 59, 68 

Chandragupta, 15 

Charnock, Job, 50-52 

Chelmsford, Viscount, 180-221 
China, 156 

Climate, 4, 9, 242 

Clive, Robert (Lord), 62, 65-79, 81, 83 
Coal, 262 

Commerce, 255-260 

Congress, v. National Congress 
Connaught, Duke of, 157, 221, 222 
Coote, General Sir Eyre, 69, 70, 73, 91 
Cornwallis, Earl, 95-99, 106 

Crimean War, 126 

Curzon, Earl (Marquis), 154-161 


Dalhousie, Marquis of, 121-128 

Debt, 276-278 

Delhi, 21-23, 26, 39, 55, 131, 157, 167, 
222 

Dost Muhammad, 117, 118, 122, 126 

Dravidians, 6, 7, 10, 11 

Dufferin, Marquis of, 148-151 

Dupleix, 59, 60, 62-65 

Durand, Sir M., 153 

Durbar, 157, 167 

Dutch, The, 45, 48, 73 

Dyarchy, 189-193, 226, 230 

Dyer, Brig.-Gen., 209, 210 


East India Company, 45-51, 60, 61, 
65, etc.; Charter, 46, 72, 107, 113; 
76-78, 93; hands over, 135 

Education, 107, 114, 127, 192 

Edward VII, King, 145, 157, 165 

Electorate, 217 

Elgin, Earl of, 153, 154 

Ellenborough, Lord, 119, 121 

Empress of India, 145 

Epics, 11, 13 

Ethnic, 5, 6 

Exchange, 223, 278-283 


Famine Commission, 160 

Finance, 184, 230, 268-283 

Forests, 247-249 

Fort William, 52, 67, 68, 82, 83, 113 
Francis, Philip, 87, 88 


293 


294 


French East India Co., 52, 53, 59, 65 
French, struggle with the, 60-63, 65- 
73, 91, 101, 102 


Gama, Vasco da, 41, 42 

Gandhi, Mr., 166, 206-210, 214, 218- 
200, 223. 224, 2275228 

Gautama (Buddha), 14 

George V, King, 159, 167 

Goa, 9, 29, 43, 44, 52 

Gokhale, Mr., 166 

Gold, 263 

Golkonda, 50 

Government of India, 137-140, 214- 
216 

Government of India Bill, 1833, 112, 
113; 1919, 214-217 

Guptas, 16 

Gurus, 33 


Haidar Ali, 90, 91, 102 

Haidarabad, 72, 79, 102, 103 

Hardinge, Lord (of Penshurst), 
168-179 

Hardinge, Sir H. (Viscount), 121 

Harsha, 17 

Hastings, Warren, 75, 79, 83-96 ; 
peachment of, 95 

Heber, Bishop, 111 

Herat, 117, 118, 128, 

Holkar, 104, 109 

Holwell, Mr., 67, 68 

Humayun, 23 

Huns, 16 

Hunter Committee, 209, 214 

Hyder, Hyderabad, v. Haidar, Haidara- 
bad 


166, 


im- 


129 


Ilbert Bill, 147, 148 

Impey, Sir E., 88, 89 

India, geographical and physical, 3- 
5; ethnic, 5, 6; language, 6; _poli- 
tical divisions, 7-9 ; Hindu poked, 
10-18 ; uhammadan period, 18- 
27; Akbar, 24-26; Moghal Empire, 
27-40, 50-57; Aurangzeb, 27-34; 
European enterprise, 41-47; East 
India Co., 45, etce.; struggles with 
French, 60-73, 91-102; Clive, 62- 
83; Plassey, 69; Warren Hastings, 
79-96; expansion, 101-128; the 
Mutiny, 129-134; 1858-1914, 135- 
169; events during the Great War, 
170-201; Montagu-Chelmsford re- 
port, 188-194; revolutionary move- 
ment, 161-211; Amritsar, 209; 
recent events, 210-232; Economics 
and resources, 239-286;  biblio- 
graphy, 287 

Industries, 252-255 


INDEX 


Tron, 263 
Irrigation, 249-252 


Jagir, 25, 71 

Jats, 6, 33, 57 

Jehan, Shah, 27-29, 47 
Jehangir, 26, 27, 35, 40, 41, 46 
Jengiz (Chingiz) Khan, 22 


Karma, 12, 20 

Karnatik, v. Carnatic 
Khilafat, 181, 218, 219, 223 
Kitchener, F.-M., Earl, 159 
Kshatriyas, 11, 12, 16, 30 


La Bourdonnais, 62 

Lally, Count de, 72, 73 

Languages, 6, 20 

Lansdowne, Marquis of, 150-153 

Law, administration of, 87, 88 

Lawrence, Henry, 122, 123, 129 

Lawrence, Sir John (Lord), 122, 123, 
130, 140, 142 

Lawrence, Stringer, 63-65 

Literature, 107 

Lyall, Sir A., 92, 101, 133 

Lytton, Earl of, 143-145 


Madras, 60-63, 80, 90 

Mahabharata, 11, 13, 14 

Maharashtra, 29, 30, 54 

Mahmud, 19 

Marathas, 29-33, 54-58, 90, 98, 99, 
102-3. 

Mayo, Earl of, 142 

Mesopotamia, fighting in, 178, 180, 
181, 184; commission, 178, 179, 185 

Meyer, Sir W., xvi, 184 

Military Member of Council, 159 

Mines and minerals, 260-265 

Minto, Earl of, 159, 163 

Mir Jafir, 69-71, 73, 76 

Moghal Empire, 27-40; Court, 35, 
36; 50-57; 104, 106, 108, 109, 134 

Monsoon, the, 243 

Montagu, Hon. E., 185-188, 216, 227 

Montagu-Chelmsford Report, 188-194, 
205, 214, 215 

Moplah rebellion, 223, 226 

Morley, Viscount, 159, 163 

Mornington, Earl of, v. 
Marquis 

Muhammadan period, 18-27 

Muhammad Shah, 55 

Muslim League, 167, 179, 182, 183, 
188, 194, 205 

Mutiny, The, 129-134 


Nadir Shah, 55 
Nana Sahib, 124, 131 


Wellesley, 


INDEX 


Napoleon, 101, 102, 106, 107 

National Congress, 149, 150, 166, 167, 
183, 231 

Native States, 8, 9 

Northbrook, Earl of, 142, 143 

Nowshera, battle of, 120 


O’Dwyer, Sir M., 177, 197, 213 
Omichund, v. Amirchand ~ 
Oudh, 124-126, 129, 130, 223 
Outram, Sir J., 125, 129, 130 


Panipat, 22, 24, 57, 72, 85 

Partition of Bengal, 158, 159, 163 167 

Peishwas, 56-58, 103, 104 

Persia, 55, 177; expedition to, 128; 
156 

Petroleum, 264, 265 

Pindaris, 108, 109, 112 

Pitt (elder), 71, 77 

Pitt (younger), 93, 99 

Plassey, battle of, 69, 70 

Political divisions, 7-9 

Pondicherry, 9, 53, 58-60, 63, 72, 73 

Population, 7-9, 151, 192, 196, 246, 
247 

Portuguese in India, 41-45, 48 

Postal facilities, 168, 169, 269-275 

Provinces, 7-9 

Punjab, 116, 181, 130, 132, 155, 212, 
213, 226 


Raghunath Rao, 89, 90, 100 

Railways, 168, 265-268, 273 

Rajputs, 17, 25, 29, 33 

Ramayana, 11, 13, 14 

Ranjit Singh, 107, 115, 116, 118, 120 

Reading, Earl of, 226-232 

Regulation Act, 81-83 

Revenue, 270, 272, 275 

Revolutionary movements and out- 
breaks, 161-165, 167-172, 174-177 ; 
187, 207-211, 219-228 


295 


Ripon, Marquis of, 144-148 

Roe, Sir T., 40, 46, 50 

Rohillas, 55-57, 85, 86 

Rowlatt report, 203-205 ; Act, 230 
Ryswick, Treaty of, 53 


Seringapatam, 97, 98, 102 

Shah Shuja, 117-119 

Shere Ali, 143, 144 

Shore, Sir J. (Lord Teignmouth), 95, 
99-101 

Sikhs, 33, 34, 103; 
132, 175, 224, 225 

Silver, 263 

Sind, 107, 109, 119 

Sindia, 103-105, 109 

Sinha, Lord, 217 

Siraj ud Daula, 66-71 

Sivaji, 29-32, 152, 153 

Surat, Treaty of, 89, 90 

Swaraj, 31, 54, 153, 162, 175, 223, 
227-229 


war, 121-123; 


Tibet, 156 

Tilak, Mr., 153, 154, 164, 174, 182, 220 
Timur Leng (Tamerlane), 20, 21 
Tippu, 91, 97-108, 102 

Tirah campaign, 154, 155 

Trade, 155-260 

Turkman Chai, Treaty of, 117 


Urdu, 20, 36 
Victoria, Queen, 135, 145, 157 


Wales, Prince of, 227, 228 

Wandewash, battle of, 73 

War, the great, 171-188; 
effort, 195-202 

Waziristan, 220 

Wellesley, Marquis, 101-109 


India’s 


Yandabo, Treaty of, 110, 111 


Made and Printed in Great Britain, 
Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld,, London and Aylesbury. 


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